Commentary
By Manny Pinol
It is amusing to see and hear the seeming surprise reaction of people in top levels of government to the recent expose on the misuse of the pork barrel funds of Senators and Congressmen.
They act as if they are discovering this huge and brazen theft of public funds for the first time in their lives, with one Senator even claiming that the expose could be part of a scheme to destroy and demolish politicians who may figure in the Presidential elections in 2016.
Another Senator even had to gall to throw the blame at the Commission on Audit (COA) and the local government units saying that these two government entities should be responsible in monitoring the implementation of the projects funded by the pork barrel funds or what is officially known as the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).
To that I say: “Istoryahi!”
Tell that to the Marines, says an old military idiom to express cynicism and condescension at false reports and blatant lies.
The misuse of the pork barrel has been going on for years.
It is one of the many money-making operations of syndicates collaborating with corrupt officials in government.
Among these money-making schemes were the Voluntary Offer To Sell (VOS) which used the recovered Marcos wealth to implement the land reform program supposedly through the purchase of land to be distributed to landless Filipinos.
Billions of pesos were lost through this scheme as fake land titles were included in the program.
In fact, I received information that the areas surrounding the Liguasan Marsh have been titled many times over and covered by the VOS program where payments were released through the Land Bank of the Philippines.
Another scam was the Road Users Tax which was reportedly used to finance the Road Allowance claims of people whose properties were used in the construction of national road projects.
But the worst money-making operation was the “Downloading” scheme where government agencies awash with funds like the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources, the Department of Agriculture and other similar agencies transferred huge sums to local government units.
The operation was simple. All that was needed was just a resolution from the Local Government Unit (LGU) or even just a letter from the Governor addressed to the Department.
With the blessing of the powers-that-be, funds would then be transferred with the LGUs handling the liquidation through forged documents.
I wrote about this in an article on how former Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan and his family amassed money but nobody gave it a second look.
The reason? Almost everybody was involved – Malacanang, the Department of Budget and Management, the auditors in the local government units handling the liquidation and of course, the Department Secretaries.
Corruption in government is rife and rampant. From the Customs Bureau, to the Immigration Bureau, the Bureau of Internal Revenue, and even the Department of Justice (DOJ) where DOJ Opinions and Decisions were easily handed out in favor of those who had the money to fork out.
It is only now under the administration of President Benigno S. Aquino III, who promised to fight corruption under his watch, that some of these serious issues of corruption are being brought to the surface.
The question that confronts all of us Filipinos now is: Will anything come out of these exposes?
I have my fears that nothing will come out of these investigations.
The Senate for example, where the members dance to every music played in the media, has suddenly turned mum even refusing the suggestion of Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero for an “in-house” investigation into the misuse of the pork barrel funds.
This is the same Senate which has the penchant of investigating almost everything that hogs the front pages of the newspapers, including sex scandals.
Yet confronted with the allegation that several members of the Senate misused their pork barrel funds, the same Senate has suddenly turned gun-shy.
Perhaps, the brains of the P10-B pork barrel scam was right after all when she said: “We own government.”
It is now up to the Filipino people to prove her wrong and to show to all and sundry that the Filipino people are the real owners of government.
If nothing comes out of the investigations, the Filipino people through their power to vote should remember all those linked to this immoral thievery of public funds and reject them in the coming election.
(Photo credit: This inquirer.net photo shows a sweating Senator Lito Lapid after he was implicated in the P10-B pork barrel scam.)
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