Palace on Janet list: It’s up to De Lima
MANILA, Philippines - It is the responsibility of the Department of Justice (DOJ) to evaluate whatever information is extracted from or shared by alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles, Malacañang said yesterday.
Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. made the clarification in reaction to allegations by jueteng whistle-blower Sandra Cam that Senate President Franklin Drilon and the ruling Liberal Party were trying to silence her over a purported list of names of lawmakers – including administration allies – implicated by Napoles in the scam.
“Her duty as SOJ (secretary of justice) is to evaluate the information given her and decide on the most appropriate course of action,” Coloma said, referring to Justice Secretary Leila de Lima.
He stressed the DOJ chief is leaving no stone unturned in its task, even if would mean trouble for some administration allies.
“As stated by the President, let the evidence point to the direction of any inquiry regarding allegations on the misuse of public funds. Public officials associated with the administration will be treated in the same manner as all others,” Coloma said.
“Their alleged involvement in anomalies will be scrutinized thoroughly to ascertain whether there is sufficient evidence to file appropriate charges against them,” Coloma said.
“The Department of Justice will not spare efforts because the directive is clearly to base (charges) on concrete evidence,” he said.
He also made clear it is up to De Lima to decide when to release the list prepared by Napoles as part of her “tell all” affidavit personally presented to the DOJ chief.
“The secretary of justice has been given the responsibility of doing what needs to be done and we will just await her report or update regarding this matter,” Coloma said.
He said he himself has not seen the list and “I have not talked to Secretary De Lima on the details, what is its appearance, what are the features.”
What he is certain of is “she has been tasked by the President with performing the processes that need to be undertaken in order to process the additional information that has been supplied by Mrs. Napoles.”
Based on the documents in her possession, Cam said the kickbacks to lawmakers did not come only from projects bankrolled through the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), the Malampaya Fund or the Disbursement Acceleration Program. PDAF is the official term for congressional pork barrel.
Cam added that one ranking senator got even more kickbacks than the three opposition senators facing plunder charges before the Sandiganbayan.
“A huge amount of pork barrel allocations received by this top-ranking senator and the others came from congressional insertions, on top of the regular PDAF allocations,” Cam was quoted in a report as saying.
Cam said these insertions were made when Drilon was chairman of the Senate finance committee deliberating on the national budget.
Drilon’s office denied Cam’s allegations that the Senate president had received the largest kickbacks in the pork barrel scam and congressional insertions.
Cam said her list was similar to that in the possession of presidential assistant on rehabilitation and recovery Panfilo Lacson, but would not say if her copy came from him.
“It contains the names of 13 still unnamed senators and the three opposition senators, bringing the total to 16 senators involved in the pork barrel scam,” Cam said.
In the House of Representatives, the list contained the names of 82 congressmen, she said.
Pressure shrugged off
De Lima made clear yesterday she can’t be pressured into making the controversial list public.
“I already said that I cannot be pressured to release the list at this point. I will do so in due time – upon completion of the Napoles statement and the vetting process,” she told reporters in a text message.
De Lima reiterated her stand against releasing the list and affidavit of Napoles at a time when the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is still validating the information provided by the detained businesswoman who reportedly pointed to the “real mastermind” of the pork barrel scam.
While she agreed with Drilon’s statement that the Senate has constitutional power to compel her to release the list, De Lima said she would appeal for the senators’ understanding.
“By law and the Constitution, the Senate can compel me to disclose the list, under pain of contempt. But I will appeal to them to wait for the proper time and give me enough space to discharge my mandated tasks with utmost responsibility,” she stressed.
Several senators have been urging her to release the list to end speculations linking them to the scam.
But Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee, earlier said they would allow the DOJ to complete the validation process before deciding to reopen the committee’s inquiry into the PDAF scam, especially into the “tell-all” account of Napoles.
De Lima also ignored Cam’s showing up at the DOJ to personally appeal for the release of the list.
“Sorry, I don’t intend to react to that,” she told reporters when asked about Cam’s appeal.
Cam, who heads an organization of whistle-blowers, said delays in the release of the list have been fueling speculations that administration allies were sanitizing it.
She claimed that about 80 percent of officials included in a list given to her by a “highly-unimpeachable” source are allies of the Aquino administration.
De Lima earlier accused those claiming to have copies of the list as having “insidious agenda.”
At the House of Representatives, members of the so-called independent bloc renewed their call for the release of the list in De Lima’s possession.
Buhay party-list Rep. Lito Atienza said the bloc would exhaust all possible means to compel De Lima to disclose the details of the Napoles list, considering reports that as many as 100 House members were on it.
“But since Secretary De Lima arrogantly refuses to heed requests from various sectors to reveal the contents of the list, all the members of the House of Representatives continue to be suspects,” Atienza said.
Abakada-Guro party-list Rep. Jonathan de la Cruz, also a member of the bloc, said De Lima’s move to extract confession from Napoles was apparently intended to cover up for administration allies linked to the scam.
She described Napoles as an “equal opportunity operator” who had carried out her anomalous dealings with officials of the previous and present administrations.
Not so fast
For Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano, Napoles’ promise to tell everything she knows should be treated with caution.
He said Napoles appears to be manipulating the public with her pronouncements – made through her lawyer – about her willingness to tell all, not only about the pork barrel scam, but also about the Malampaya Fund scam.
“That’s great (that she wants to tell all). But why is she using this kind of process? Why doesn’t she just come here and tell all? I’m a little bit cautious in believing someone who never told us the truth in the past,” Cayetano said.
“So for me, my message for Mrs. Napoles is to just do it. Because I feel that we are being manipulated by Mrs. Napoles,” he added.
Cayetano said that the purported list of hundreds of legislators who supposedly dealt with Napoles over the years was also part of the scheme of Napoles to distort the truth and muddle the issue.
He said Napoles should have just announced the contents of the list in public instead of handing it over to De Lima and even to Lacson. Such tack, he said, has promoted further intrigue.
“First of all, if Mrs. Napoles really wanted to release this list, then why did she have to go through the DOJ? Her lawyer could have just released it to the media. Why was senator Lacson and Sandra Cam given copies and then this will create so much doubt,” Cayetano said.
Cayetano expressed belief powerful people were behind Napoles but he would not reveal their identities.
Cayetano said he finds it befuddling that Napoles is still enjoying special treatment when she should be staying in an ordinary detention facility just like any other person accused of a serious crime.
“For me there is definitely someone protecting Mrs. Napoles, because why is it that until now she is not in an ordinary jail? Why is she being treated this way? Because there are still powerful people behind her,” Cayetano said.
“Who they are I still don’t know. But I cannot believe that she is being treated that way, with kid gloves,” he added.
Asked if the political opposition is backing Napoles, Cayetano said there is no way of telling nowadays if someone is with the administration or the opposition.
He said that Napoles should just appear before the Senate in a public hearing and subject herself to cross-examination. With Edu Punay, Paolo Romero, Marvin Sy
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