Find the ‘Livelihood Girls’
By Manny Pinol
While his half-brother and fellow Senator Jinggoy Estrada is busy weaving yarn after yarn to slither out of his perceived involvement in the P10-B pork barrel scam, neophyte Senator JV Ejercito has asked the Commission on Audit (COA) to widen its probe into the biggest financial scandal to hit the Lower and Upper House of Philippine Congress.
Virtually confirming the presence and operation of groups represented by “beautiful ladies” who convinced Congressmen to share their pork barrel for ghost livelihood projects in exchange for huge kickbacks, JV said the COA probe should not just focus on opposition Senators.
It might have been an attempt to save the skin of his half-brother, Jinggoy who is the son of former President Joseph Estrada by former senator Loi Estrada, but JV Ejercito, daughter of former beauty queen Guia Estrada, unwittingly confirmed the pork barrel scam by asking for a deeper investigation.
A news item written by Norman Bordadora of the Philippine Daily Inquirer made this report:
“Neophyte Sen. JV Ejercito wants the COA to cast a wider net in its audit of pork barrel releases to identify others who could have been involved in the scam, other than opposition leaders Enrile and Estrada.
“Ejercito, a half-brother of Estrada (the two are sons of deposed President Joseph Estrada, who is now mayor of Manila), said there could also be “other Napoleses” with the same modus operandi, securing pork barrel kickbacks for themselves and for corrupt lawmakers.
“It has been mentioned quite often three members of our colleagues (sic),” Ejercito said at the Senate hearing on Thursday, apparently referring to Estrada, Enrile and Revilla.
“Ejercito, a former congressman representing San Juan, said there had to be more individuals operating the same way as Napoles.
“We are zeroing in on Napoles NGOs in this hearing, but with your indulgence, I would like to ask the COA or [the Department of Agriculture] or whoever, are there other Napoleses operating this way? Because there can’t only be one,” he said.
“Ejercito told the committee that during his stint in the House, “there are times there are a lot of beautiful ladies around (sic).”
“We called them ‘livelihood girls’ because they were peddling livelihood projects,” he said, indicating that the women were asking lawmakers if they could fund the projects with their PDAF for possible kickbacks for both the proponents and the lawmakers.”
JV Ejercito’s statement clearly confirmed what has been public knowledge for so long – that in the supposed hallowed halls of the Senate and Congress temptresses strutted along the corridors of power and lured Senators and Congressmen of big returns for a simple scam.
The pork barrel scam, as it is now known by every Filipino, involved the transfer of funds to bogus Non-Governmental Organizations and even Local Government Units (LGU) in the firm control of well-entrenched political families, under the pretext of implementing livelihood projects and small rural projects like farm to market roads and irrigation projects.
The projects, of course, were never implemented and the liquidation of the funds disbursed, if ever the operators bothered to cover their tracks at all, were all on paper.
Corruption in government was at its worse during the 9-year reign of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who had to play ball with Congressmen, Senators and local political warlords to keep a firm grip on power in view of the constant threat of impeachment.
For political allies who delivered votes for Malacanang, the administration of President Arroyo generously poured funds from the different government Departments to the coffers of the LGUs with the Governors or the Mayors promptly submitting documents to liquidate the fund transfers.
Among the most notorious government departments involved in this scheme were the Dept. of Agriculture, the Dept. of Agrarian Reform, the Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources, the Dept. of Public Works and Highways and even the Dept. of Energy through the Malampaya Gas Funds.
This was done with the connivance of top leaders of the Dept. of Budget and Management and the grudging participation of the auditors in the field who were often threatened and at times liquidated.
Already, with only data during the years 2009 to 2011 bared by the COA, the whole nation is outraged.
It is anybody’s guess how the whole country will react when the true extent of the corruption in government would be bared, including the identification of the other pork scammers’ groups represented by the “livelihood girls.”
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