So who’s afraid of “Ma’am Janet”? A lot of people who were the cat’s pajamas in the Aquino administration, that’s who.
After all, if Janet Lim Napoles has nothing new to say, then only those whom she has already implicated need fear anything from her. On the other hand, if Napoles has proof that more lawmakers and other government officials apart from those who have already been linked to her in the past benefited from the scam that she ran (as many have long believed), then by all means, let her say her piece.
It’s that simple. Meanwhile, Senators Franklin Drilon, Leila de Lima and Antonio Trillanes —who are all widely believed to have been involved with Napoles but who were never charged because of their closeness to the previous administration—should really calm down.
All three senators have attacked Napoles and Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre for supposedly staging a black propaganda campaign against them by declaring that new charges will be filed based on evidence that the alleged pork barrel scandal mastermind will still reveal. But as of this moment, Napoles has not even said anything, apart from reportedly telling Aguirre that she will implicate the three, together with former Budget Secretary Florencio Abad.
The three senators already protest too much, I think. And that goes for Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales—who has repeatedly declared that Napoles has nothing new to say and that she will be the ultimate judge of what charges will be filed, if any, based on any new information that Napoles may reveal—as well.
The senators should take their cue from Abad, whom Napoles once called her mentor and the official also at the center of the scandal, as the person in charge of releasing billions in purloined pork funds. The man Aquino cited for his great, Apolinario Mabini-like mind has not been heard from since Napoles was acquitted on charges of illegal detention, despite the fact that everyone and his Facebook friend knows that kidnapping was not what made “Ma’am Janet” a household name.
I heard Abad is just chilling in Batanes while his former fellow members in the Yellow politburo are going bananas. I think he should offer to mentor Drilon, De Lima and Trillanes now and perhaps to be their life coach, as well.
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Speaking of going bananas, it seems like Aguirre is under intense pressure to act on House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez’s demand for his office, which has supervision over the Bureau of Corrections, to rescind the joint venture agreement between the agency and the Tagum Development Corp. During a House hearing on the agreement yesterday, Aguirre declared that he will ask BuCor to look into the agreement, with a view towards invalidating it. This after Aguirre admitted during an earlier hearing that only President Rodrigo Duterte has the power to do so.
The pressure on Aguirre comes in the form of a draft resolution authored by Sulu second district Rep. Munir Arbison, who demanded that the Commission on Appointments withdraw its earlier confirmation of the justice secretary. Arbison, a known ally of Alvarez, accused Aguirre of favoring a former client of his, Sulu Vice Gov. Abdusakur Tan, who filed a case against Arbison.
Arbison said Aguirre accepted millions of pesos from Tan, his former client, in order to find probable cause against Arbison, who has a pending case before the DoJ. If the CA will not withdraw Aguirre’s confirmation, Arbison said, the justice secretary must immediately resign.
Alvarez, during the same hearing, was in fine fettle, demanding that Aguirre and BuCor immediately withdraw from the agreement, supposedly to ensure that the government doesn’t lose any more money from it. Alvarez’s action raised not a few eyebrows, because the House investigation into the BuCor-Tadeco deal was still ongoing, and yet the speaker was already calling for its revocation.
Aguirre must not buckle under the pressure exerted on him by Alvarez, who has made the scrapping of the deal leasing government land to the banana plantation his personal crusade. The justice secretary already declared that it is beyond his authority to do Alvarez’s bidding, after all.
As for Congress, it must not allow itself to be used as Alvarez’s tool to get back at the speaker’s former friend and fellow Davao del Norte Rep. Antonio Floirendo. I’m sure there are enough congressmen who can see through Alvarez’s obvious plot to make Floirendo and his family bow to him but who are too scared to stand up to their all-powerful leader.
This is no way to run a House, which is already laboring under the long-held reputation of being the rubber stamp of Malacañang. Will our congressmen be tools of their speaker, as well, doing his bidding even if they know he is merely engaged in a personal vendetta?
This mockery of a House investigation, which seeks to abrogate a perfect deal that has gotten the seal of approval of all governments for the past five decades, must stop. Alvarez may think he is getting his revenge from Floirendo, but 30,000 workers in the Tadeco plantation don’t think that they should suffer while the speaker exacts his pound of flesh in exchange for a personal slight.