Category: In the News

Solons in pork scam liquidated the money

Ed Lingao Leave a comment

MOST OF THE LEGISLATORS implicated in the pork barrel scandal had personally signed the liquidation reports to indicate that the money had been received or used by the target beneficiaries.

This, even though the projects were never really implemented because the non-governmental organizations to which the pork funds went were actually bogus.

This was one of several issues that emerged during the second hearing of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee investigating the pork barrel scandal, where billions of pesos from the Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF) were allegedly funneled by government line agencies to bogus NGOs that were chosen by several Congressmen and Senators.

During the hearing, former officials from the Znac Rubber Estate Corporation (ZREC) and the National Agribusiness Corporation (NABCOR) were grilled by Senators on the identity of the legislators who chose the fake NGOs. ZREC and NABCOR had channeled a total of P1.5 billion to fake NGOs that were allegedly set up by middleman Janet Lim-Napoles to corner the pork funds.

Rhodora Mendoza, the former vice president for finance of NABCOR, identified the legislators who channeled funds to the Napoles NGOs as Senators Ramon Revilla Jr., Jinggoy Estrada, and former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile; and Congressmen Conrado Estrella III, Erwin Chiongbian, Rodolfo Plaza, Victor Ortega, Samuel Dangwa, Edgardo Valdez, Mark Douglas Cagas, Rizalina Lanete, and Arthur Pinggoy.

These legislators chose the Social Development Program for Farmers Foundations Inc. as a beneficiary for millions of pesos of their pork barrel funds. The Foundation was later found to be fake.

As well, ZREC’s former head, Assistant Secretary Salvador Salacup, said Senators Estrada, Enrile, and Revilla also endorsed the Pangkabuhayan Foundation Inc., which also turned out to be questionable. Congressmen Edgar Valdes and Mariano Michael Velarde also endorsed the NGO.

During the grilling, Mendoza and Salacup said that the liquidation reports were “certified correct by the legislators themselves,” indicating that the legislators had confirmed that the money had been spent on the chosen beneficiaries.

“In one letter, I saw a letter from office of Senator Enrile but signed by Lucila Reyes. In that letter, it was mentioned she was an authorized representative of Mr Evangelista would be representing the office. There were communications from the office of Senator Estrada wherein he signed himself,” Salacup said adding that Senator Revilla also signed the endorsement to one project.

“Most of the legislators, they signed themselves. But for the few legislators, they assigned somebody from their office,” Mendoza concurred during a grilling by Senator Sergio Osmena III.

Another disturbing finding by the Blue Ribbon Committee was the lack of due diligence on the part of government line agencies in releasing millions of pesos in public funds to private organizations without even a cursory background check.

Allan Javellana, the former President of NABCOR, claimed he was “shocked and surprised” upon learning that the NGOs funded through their GOCC were bogus. Many of the Senators however were unconvinced with Javellana’s statements, saying that it was highly unlikely for a responsible government official to be so careless with public funds.

Javellana was also grilled by the Senators on his associations with Napoles and her former right-hand-man-turned whistleblower, Benhur Luy. Javellana told the Senators he had met with Napoles twice in a coffeeshop at the Discovery Suites to brief her on NABCOR projects she could tap into. The Senators wondered how Javellana could judge the legitimacy of Napoles’ NGOs based on just two meetings in a coffee shop.

“First, I was really shocked and surprised. But to the best of our knowledge, we really checked the documents. Siguro sir, naloko kami,” said Javellana.

He explained to Guingona that they follow the same format as ZREC where the first step was to validate the NGOs’ claim through paper documentation.

“We checked their (Securities and Exchange Commission) registration, business permits, work on financial plan,” Javellana said.

However, when Guingona pressed if they ever visited the addresses, both Javellana and Salacup answered no.

“There was a failure in validation,” remarked Senator Bam Aquino during the hearing. “Paper validation is not enough. We are talking about huge amounts of money. Walang excuse.”

The Senators pointed out that the government line agencies should have at least visited the offices of the NGOs to check on their physical capabilities, or interviewed their staffmembers. In fact, these line agencies collect a three percent commission from the NGOs for the purpose of monitoring their implementation of these projects.

“May pera na binibigay sa inyo para magmonitor. Ano ba naman na ang isang staff ninyo pumunta dun para mag check? If you did that, wala sana tayong iskandalo ngayon,” Aquino said.

Luneta, one more time lest we forget

Ed Lingao Leave a comment

 

AUGUST 26 was memorable because it was the day when hundreds of thousands of Filipinos, many of them “unorganized,” spilled out into the streets to express their derision over the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), otherwise known as the pork barrel.

The activity was sparked in part by reports that some P10 billion in pork barrel funds had been channeled into the pockets of middlemen and legislators through the use of ghost nongovernment organizations.

With the very high-profile surrender of Janet Lim-Napoles to President Benigno S. Aquino III himself, the issues appear to have changed, and the mood appears to have shifted. Now, social media is a-buzz with how government would or should prosecute those guilty of squirreling away public funds to very private pockets. And so the question: Regardless of who is hauled off to court, will the pork remain?

Lest the public forgets, the issue may not just be how the pork barrel is misused; rather, it is, more importantly, about the continuing politics of patronage, and how those whose main function should be legislation have also taken on the task of appropriation. It is the politics of give-and-take, the politics of wheeling and dealing, and a system of perpetuated dependence.

When the President announced he was abolishing the pork barrel, what he really meant was that he was merely reworking the mechanism of pork. And so, despite the anger at the Luneta, the Presidential ‘abolition,’ and that high-profile ‘surrender,’ pork still remains as pork, allowing the smartest and the craftiest among us to bring home the bacon while the rest are grateful to have been left with the scraps.

 

Mangahas is Metrobank Journalist of the Year

Ed Lingao Leave a comment

Malou Mangahas

MALOU MANGAHAS, Executive Director of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism and host of the television show Investigative Documentaries, is one of three journalists honored by the Metrobank Foundation as Journalists of the Year.

The award is given out by the Metrobank Foundation, in partnership with Probe Media Foundation, “to recognize excellence in Philippine journalism across all media platforms – television, radio, print, and online.”

“With the theme Shaping the Nation through Powerful Storytelling, the search honors Filipino journalists whose excellent storytelling has contributed to positive social change and in building the nation,” the Metrobank Foundation said in a statement.

The other two winners are Jarius Bondoc, columnist of the Philippine Star and host of DWIZ’s radio program Sapol ni Jarius Bondoc, and Rodrigo ‘Jiggy’ Manicad Jr., anchor of GMA-7′s Reporters’ Notebook.

Nominees to the award went through a rigorous screening process, where each one submitted five of their best works in the last 10 years. They were then judged by a selection committee based on skills, craftmanship, relevance of content to the community, and contribution to positive social change.

The final stage of the selection involved an interview by a panel led by Supreme Court Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, and Commission on Higher Education chairperson Patricia Licuanan, University of Sto. Tomas rector Fr. Herminio Dagohoy, University of the Philippines former president Emerlinda Roman, Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation president Carmencita Abella, Asian Institute of Journalism president emeritus Florangel Rosario-Braid, and UP Institute of Islamic Studies dean Julkipli Wadi.

MCM JOY

The formal awarding will be done in October this year, to be followed by a series of lectures by the awardees in select areas throughout the country.

The Metrobank Journalist of the Year award is but another feather in the cap of Mangahas, a veteran journalist who has extensive experience in print, television, and online media. Just this June, Mangahas was also chosen as the 2013 Marshall Macluhan Fellow in recognition of her professional work.

A former campus journalist during the Marcos years and editor-in-chief of the Philippine Collegian, Malou graduated cum laude from the University of the Philippines, after finishing her thesis on the run with the use of a portable typewriter (Marcos had issued arrest orders against her and other student leaders).

As the first woman president of the UP University Student Council in 1980-81, she was arrested and detained for nearly four months at the Marcos prison for political detainees in Bicutan, for alleged subversion.

Malou started out as a print journalist in the last years of the Marcos regime, and became editor-in-chief of The Manila Times in 1994-99. She worked as a senior correspondent for Reuters, before moving on to GMA-7 as the first editor-in-chief of GMAnewsTV and Vice President for Research and Content Development of GMA News and Public Affairs.

Malou was a Nieman Fellow for Journalism at Harvard University in 1998-99.

She now works full-time as the Executive Director of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, which she co-founded with eight other veteran journalists in 1989.

Malou keeps a well-stocked kitchen for husband Roel R. Landingin, The Financial Times‘ senior correspondent in Manila and former Bloomberg-Manila bureau chief, and their daughter, who won as Most Valuable Player in the Women’s Basketball League in high school. Malou tends to a small garden where her two kalamansi trees once yielded 75 fruits, a feat in the urban jungle called Metro Manila.

 

An epidemic of protest vs. pork

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THE MARCHERS HAVE YET to take their first step to the Luneta and rally sites in cities across the nation tomorrow.

But already an epidemic of on ground and online protest against pork and budget scams has engulfed the nation, assuring that the marches could draw significant numbers and success.

While most everyone has spoken against the scams, President Aquino and the majority of lawmakers have responded with only minor reforms, or promise of reforms, seemingly impervious to the core content of the citizens’ clamor. In various statements, the citizens have raised similar calls, notably:

– Abolish pork and special purpose funds of all types and names, which lawmakers command and the President controls.

– Conduct an independent and comprehensive investigation into all the pork and budget scams, from the previous to the present administrations.

– Bring to trial everyone from the legislative and executive branches who are behind the abuse and misuse of pork and public funds, regardless of political party affiliation.

– Pass the Freedom of Information Act to assure full transparency and accountability in the use of taxpayers’ money.

The students, faculty members, and administrators of the biggest universities and colleges, and the leaders of the major churches and civil society groups have pledged to the last to send their contingent to the Luneta tomorrow.

In a statement issued on Friday, the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) called on its 1,252 member schools across the nation to support the citizens’ march.

The academic communities of the University of the Philippines, De La Salle University, Ateneo de Manila University, and other colleges have issued separate statements with similar demands.

The FOI Youth Initiative (FYI), a national coalition of 129 student councils and organizations that is pushing for the passage of the Freedom of Information Act, has also pledged to join the protest march.

The Right to Know, Right Now! Coalition, which counts the FYI among its 160 member-organizations of workers, civil servants, informal settlers, overseas Filipino workers, academics, church groups, businessmen, and civil society groups will also send a delegation to the Luneta.

Days earlier, a joint statement from the Bishops-Businessmen’s Conference, the Makati Business Club, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines-National Secretariat for Social Action, the Citizens’ Congress for Good Governance,, and the Transparency and Accountability Network have raised similar demands of the President and Congress.

On ground and online, the protest movement against pork and budget scams has gained a seemingly unstoppable momentum.

It was, after all, the brilliant idea of some netizens to marshall the ranks of the people to the Luneta tomorrow. By some stroke of both fate and genius, August 26 is also fittingly observed in these parts as “National Heroes’ Day”.

In a report, the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) gave a lay-of-land story on the forces and the numbers that now make up the people’s campaign against pork and budget scams.

Nearly every news report on the pork scam has triggered “a massive number of Facebook, Twitter, and blog posts”, and tons of photos and video to boot, CMFR noted.

Online art and memes have flourished, and hashtags aplenty have been born, nearly all drawing large numbers of followers.

CMFR said these hashtags include #porkbarrelscam, #PDAFscam, #ScrapPork, #PDAFKalampag, #PorkBarrel, #TayoAngBoss, #OnePinoy, #MillionPeopleMarch, #ProtestaNgBayan, #YesConchitaCan, among others.

“As of Aug. 23, Change.org — a petition platform online — shows a total of 19 petitions with an estimated total of 26,942 signatures supporting various campaigns on the PDAF issue,” CMFR said.

These petitions include those uploaded by the Former Senior Government Officials (FSGO), with 15,802 supporters; the Citizens’ Congress for Good Governance (C2G2), Inc., with 2,840 supporters; and Ang Kapatiran Party (Kapatiran sa Pangkalahatang Kabutihan Party/Alliance for the Common Good), with 156 supporters.

Individual netizens have mounted similar petitions, CMFR said, including Lawrence Salvador with 4,489 supporters, and John Alfred Lucot, with 1,012 supporters.

By all indications, an epidemic of protest against pork and budget scams will carry to certain success the people’s march tomorrow at the Luneta and other cities of the nation.

At the very least, the march could serve as a national collective shout-out, one of the citizens claiming their rightful power over their leaders so the latter may follow as instructed — abolish pork, investigate and punish all the guilty, and pass the FOI law promptly.

But what happens next after the march?

To be sure, one march will not usher in transparency, accountability, and good governance in full glory. Or even assure the death of pork. It seems like everyone needs to wait, watch, and rail and wail against pork and budget scams for much longer, until real results and reforms come.

Wise counsel comes from two great writers.

To the leaders:

“You only have power over people so long as you don’t take everything away from them. But when you’ve robbed a man of everything, he’s no longer in your power – he’s free again.”

– Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian novelist, historian, and author of The Gulag Archipelago

And to the citizens:

“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”

- Elie Wiesel, Romanian born American writer, Nobel Prize for Peace winner in 1988

COA on pork: ‘Culture of impunity’

Ed Lingao Leave a comment


THE ADVERSE FINDINGS OF A Commission on Audit study on the use of the pork barrel by Congress during a three year period was so mind-boggling that the head of the COA felt like breaking down.

COA Chairperson Grace Pulido-Tan has released the findings of a special COA audit of the pork barrel from the years 2007 until 2009, where the audit body found brazen and staggering examples of misuse and mismanagement of public funds by the government agencies tasked with implementing the pork barrel projects.

As well, Tan expressed her amazement at the apparent failure of responsible government agencies to keep good records of fund disbursement, a practice which may, wittingly or unwittingly, have aided and abetted in the misuse of government funds.

The COA findings covered a wide range of anomalies, from excessive grants of pork barrels to select legislators, to the careless release of billions in government funds to unverified nongovernment organizations of dubious existence, to ghost fund releases to ghost NGOs and beneficiaries, to even the building of government infrastructure on privately-owned land.

The COA findings comes even as the public is still to grasp the full extent of the P10 billion pork barrel controversy that has been hounding businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles and her JLN group. Napoles has been accused of setting up fake NGOs to receive pork barrel funding from legislators for more than a decade now.

“There is a culture of impunity that we have to consider here,” Tan said. “I hope that with the investigation now with the Department of Justice and the Ombudsman, mayroon nang makakasuhan dito.”

“Kung si Cardinal (Chito) Taglem, naluha, ako ay nahagulgol,” Tan told reporters as she presented her team’s findings.

The offenses were so brazen and the record-keeping was so poor that one would wonder if one was deliberately in support of the other, Tan said.

“May mga listahan ng beneficiaries (of pork barrel) na kinuha sa listahan ng mga pumasa sa Board o sa Bar (the law licensure exams), and we were able to compare the list,” Tan told reporters.

As well, Tan said the COA team found that P6.156 billion in pork funds from 12 senators and 180 congressmen were channeled to 82 NGOs, some of whose existence were highly in doubt. In fact, Tan said, ten of these 82 NGOs were later implicated in the Janet Napoles controversy.

“Some of the NGOs were more questionable than others,” Tan said.

The COA audit covered some P 101.6 billion in pork barrel releases, broken down into hard and soft pork projects. However, of that magnificent amount, Tan said the COA could only really audit a mere P32 billion in fund disbursements.

The reason for this, Tan said, was that the Department of Budget and Management had mysteriously been unable to provide records of its schedule of disbursements to the projects of the legislators. In other words, more than half of the pork barrel disbursements were not properly recorded by the DBM, making it impossible for the COA to keep track of them.

As a result, the COA has had to rely more on the records kept by the individual agencies, instead of the central agencies that was supposed to make the disbursements.

Despite the difficulty in the audit, Tan said it was pretty clear that at least P1 billion was gone because of “leakage,” at the very least.

“The leakage is in thenature of overpricing, or specifications not being followed, or something being wrong with the construction, or mga hindi nagamit,” Tan said. Tan however was very careful not to make any accusations against any officials, past or present: “Pero never kong sinasabi na may nagbulsa.”

The findings of the COA are as follows:

  • The DBM failed to keep proper records and onitor releases, and as such could not provide the COA the proper documents for more than half the disbursements;
  • At least 74 legislators exceeded their prok barrel allocations (P200 million for senators; P70 million for congressmen);
  • At least one non-legislator, a certain Luis Abalos, somehow received P20 million in pork barrel funds;
  • One former legislator, Manuel “Way Kurat” Zamora, received P3 billion worth of pork barrel projects. Curiously, Zamora had made a name for himself with his high-profile gimmicks by riding a bike to Congress after saying he could not afford a car;
  • Implementing agencies simply transferred the funds to the favored NGOs of the legislators even without the appropriate paperwork or verification;
  • Many of the NGOs were not chosen through competitive bidding, but merely through endorsements by the legislators;
  • Projects were found to be grossly deficient, “casting doubt on whether they were carried out at all.” “(THe NGOs) were either unknown or could not be found at their given addresses, or have given non existent addresses, or were traced to mere shanties or high end residences which turned out to be the residences of their owners.”
  • About P123 million were used by NGOs to pay the salaries of their employees; in effect, government was paying the salaries of these non-government organizations;
  • Some projects were deficient or overpriced; At least 90 projects were either not utilized or fully utilized, or in a state of deterioration.
  • Some 54 projects costing P161 million were constructed on private lots.

Tan said the COA has already presented its findings to both President Benigno S. Aquino III and to the Office of the Ombudsman for proper action. However Tan refused to say if the COA was going to recommend the filing of charges against any political personality, saying the COA was merely tasked with auditing the spending, and it would be up to the Ombudsman to see if anyone was to be held criminally liable.

Still, the COA asked the DBM to issue stricter and more stringent guidelines in the use of pork barrel and in the participation of NGOs.

“It is also recommended that legislators limit their participation to identification of projects, and ensure that such projects are eligible under the terms and provisions of the General Appropriations Act,” the COA report said.