PNP barracks cleared for ‘pork scammers’

MANILA – Officials of the Philippine National Police (PNP) custodial service will temporarily vacate their quarters to give way to the 54 individuals who are most likely to be arrested for their alleged involvement in the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) scam.

Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel Roxas II said last Friday renovations and expansions at the detention jail in the PNP custodial center in Camp Crame, Quezon City are already done and the facility can now accept detainees.

Roxas inspected on June 7 the possible detention center of the 54 individuals implicated in the scam, including Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Revilla, who are facing plunder and graft charges at the Sandiganbayan.

“’Yung barracks nung mga official, pansamantala gagawin muna iyon na detention center para sa mga detainees, para makapag-comply ang PNP sa utos ng nakatataas na hukuman,” Roxas said.

The custodial center can only accommodate around 80 to 100 inmates. It has 73 detainees at present, said PNP spokesman Reuben Theodore Sindac.

Roxas assured t hat there will be no special treatment for high-profile detainees.

The three senators allegedly pocketed kickbacks by channeling their PDAF to the bogus non-government organizations (NGOs) of businesswoman Janet Napoles.

Napoles, who is detained at a police camp in Laguna for serious illegal detention, is a co-accused in all cases against the three senators.

In a statement, antipork barrel group Youth Act Now said that the fight against the pork barrel system does not end in the imminent prosecution of the three lawmakers. “The youth sector has not forgotten about how miniscule the pork barrel of legislators is when compared to the presidential pork barrel which amounts to over P1 trillion, all of which are controlled by Aquino. Then there’s the unsettled controversy over the Disbursement Acceleration Program. No amount of gimmickry can erase those facts from the people’s minds,” said Youth Act Now national convenor Victor Villanueva.

He said the youth will not stop to ensure that everyone involved would be prosecuted.