Weapon of choice
“Until now, the likes of Villanueva continues to pontificate on integrity while eluding accountability in the pork barrel scandal.
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Numerous names known to be Palace allies were mentioned in the documents presented by whistleblowers mainly Benhur Luy but the two senators noted selective justice were carried out by state prosecutors.
The grand paradox in the P10 billion pork barrel scam that was the sole highlight of the Daang Matuwid hype of former President Noynoy Aquino was that his selective justice was exposed by those he targeted and who later became his political trophies.
Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., who spent most of their time in detention during the Aquino regime both questioned the exclusion from his crosshairs of prominent legislators then allied with Malacañang.
Numerous names known to be Palace allies were mentioned in the documents presented by whistleblowers — mainly Benhur Luy — but the two senators noted “selective justice” were carried out by state prosecutors.
“How come there’s only one administration (personality in the last filing of a case)? What kind of an investigation is that?” Estrada said, citing for instance then House Deputy Speaker Neptali “Boyet” Gonzales II as among those who should have been included from the very beginning since the Commission on Audit (CoA) special report on the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) noted alleged irregularities in the use of his pork barrel.
Estrada, in a speech in September 2013 when he exposed alleged “incentives” to senator judges that turned out to have been generated from the notorious Disbursement Acceleration Program, mentioned a portion in the CoA report where transactions worth P263.67 million were considered “questionable” involving Gonzales’ projects as the suppliers were allegedly not legally and or physically existing.
In another privilege speech, delivered last June 2014 — on the last day of Congress session before going on sine die adjournment — Estrada mentioned a supposed meeting that took place between then CoA chairman Grace Pulido-Tan and Gonzales before the special audit report was made public.
Estrada then said the case lodged against Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) director general Joel Villanueva was considered a mere “token” just so the administration cannot be accused of coddling its own ranks.
In a belated ruling in 2018 after President Rodrigo Duterte took power, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales ordered the dismissal of Villanueva that was blocked by then Senate President Koko Pimentel who cited grounds of jurisdiction.
Revilla, for his part said the likes of Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad and Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala was not included among those probed despite their names being mentioned in the PDAF scam.
Napoles implicated Abad in her first affidavit while she also linked Alcala in her supplemental affidavit, where the latter was supposedly the signatory to the Special Allotment Release Order (SARO) coursed through one of her supposed cohorts in the Department of Agriculture (DA), Assistant Secretary Ofelia Agawin.
The senator also pointed out that the subsequent batch of respondents was slapped with bailable charges compared to the plunder charges that he and Estrada got.
Later on, Noynoy even used the CoA’s PDAF scam list as leverage to bring House members to go along with his political designs such as in the campaign to create a Bangsamoro substate.
Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez who earlier indicated that he will not compromise the BBL with its unconstitutional provisions later on coopted to take all the dictates of the Palace and reinstated the provisions removed.
Subsequently, then Justice Secretary Leila de Lima made a lot of noise about filing the third batch of charges in the pork barrel scam that included Rodriguez, Villanueva and some other Palace cronies.
After twice meeting with Aquino at Malacañang, Rodriguez and other key officials of the ad hoc committee created for the BBL appeared to have totally reversed their individual convictions and accepted the Palace bill in full.
De Lima has been dangling the filing of the cases saying that the Department of Justice was then saying that cases to be filed is under review despite the fact that two years had passed since the 2013 pork barrel scam erupted.
De Lima then rationalized that no plunder cases will be filed and graft and malversation charges were readied instead since the P50 million threshold for a crime to be considered plunder was not reached.
Until now, the likes of Villanueva continues to pontificate on integrity while eluding accountability in the pork barrel scandal.