SENATOR and would-be presidential candidate Alan Peter Cayetano hurled this question at 2016 front-runner, Vice-President Jejomar Binay, in connection with the current Senate probe of the Makati City Hall Building II.
It’s a trick question, really, like asking, “Have you stopped beating your wife lately?” It’s also obviously intended to cut Binay’s lead in the polls and boost Cayetano’s ratings. But it is a fair question, considering that all is fair in love and politics.
In fact, it is a question that should be posed to Cayetano himself, as well as his partner in the Binay inquisition, Antonio Trillanes, and other heavyweights in the current administration, including President Noynoy Aquino.
Corruption, after all, is defined as the misuse of public funds. Thus, the corrupt is not only the one who receives but also the one who gives. With the Supreme Court decreeing both the PDAF and the DAP as unconstitutional, disbursements made from them constitute a corruption of the proper use of the people’s money.
Since it is Cayetano asking the question, “Is there or isn’t there corruption?” it should be fair to ask him to answer it.
According to a May 26, 2014 GMA News item bylined by Andreo Calonzo, alleged Queen of Pork Janet Lim-Napoles claimed that she personally gave Cayetano money for his 2010 senatorial campaign at Slice, a restaurant in Taguig owned by his sister, Senator Pia Cayetano.
Cayetano has vigorously denied this. But it makes you wonder why Napoles would specifically mention a place described in a Google search as follows: “One of the new concept restaurants in Bonifacio High Street Central is SLICE, the latest baby of Senator Pia Cayetano.”
If Napoles were making up the story, couldn’t she have mentioned a place she was more familiar with, like Heritage Park?
Besides, what’s wrong with receiving a campaign contribution, if that was what the money was intended for? The most honest political candidates around the world don’t mind getting campaign contributions.
You only deny receiving campaign money from someone if you have prior knowledge that the contributor could pose a moral or ethical problem for you. Is this why Cayetano has been so vehement in his denial?
In other words, is there or isn’t there corruption?
And then there are the entries in whistle-blower Benhur Luy’s ledger, quoted by Genalynn Kabiling and Hannah Torregoza of the Manila Bulletin in a story filed on May 31, 2014:
“Did Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, a staunch anti-corruption advocate, benefit from the pork barrel scam allegedly masterminded by businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles?
“This will be known after government investigating bodies conclude their probe of the digital files of pork barrel scam whistleblower Benhur Luy that was turned over to the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee.
“Based on an Excel file entry of Luy’s files that was made public by the Senate panel, it appeared that cash advances were handed over to Cayetano when he was still a congressman.
“The file shows ‘Cong. Allan Peter Cayetano’ as the ‘proponent’ of a project implemented in the district of ‘Pateros-Taguig.’
“The project is titled: ‘Supply of Communication Equipment’ supposedly implemented under or by the ‘DOTC.’ The same document shows an entry of an amount of ‘3,000,000’; ‘SARO: Released; ‘Remarks: Waiting NCA.’
“The ‘cash advances’ appeared to be divided into tranches with the first tranche ‘500,000.00’ delivered on ‘4/25/2003’; ‘50,000.00’ delivered on ‘4/28/2003’; ‘25,000.00’ delivered on ‘8/25/2003’; ‘37,500’ delivered on ‘8/26/2003’, ‘27,125.00’ delivered on ‘9/8/2003.’ The total cash totaled to ‘639,625.00.’
“Manila Bulletin tried to get Cayetano’s side but he could not be reached.”
Cayetano has vigorously denied any links with Napoles, but why should his denials be any more credible than those of the Binay’s, and why should the affidavit of Napoles and the ledger of Luy be any less believable than the speculative (by their own admission) testimony of the “resource persons” in the Senate hearing being stage-managed by Cayetano and Trillanes?
Again, we ask, isn’t it fair to ask Cayetano, as a purported “staunch anti-corruption advocate”: Is there or isn’t there corruption?
And then, of course, there is the plunder case filed with the Ombudsman against the Cayetanos, including wife and Taguig Mayor Lani Cayetano, by lawyer Roderick Vera of the group, Philippine Association for the Advancement of Civil Liberties, Inc.
According to a story filed by Jenny Reyes of ABS-CBN News, the complaint “alleged that Sen. Cayetano misused his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) from 2007 to 2009, around the same time when the senator was claiming he was deprived of his pork barrel funds for being critical of then-president Gloria Arroyo.”
The story continued: “The group also claimed that Cayetano also has unexplained wealth, based on a leap in his net worth from P15 million in 2010 to P23 million pesos in 2011.
“A separate graft complaint was also filed against the senator, his wife Lani, and 16 city councilors for the alleged purchase of 18 overpriced multicabs worth over P8 million, or roughly half a million pesos each.
“Plunder charges were also filed against Mayor Cayetano and the 16 councilors for allegedly releasing P313 million for the hiring of over 3,000 ghost employees.”
Cayetano has attributed the charges to the Binay camp, but that still begs the question: Is there or isn’t there corruption?
Fellow Binay inquisitor Antonio Trillanes, also a presidential or vice-presidential wannabe, has to answer the same question himself. Was there or wasn’t there corruption in his receipt of P100 million from the DAP funds on top of the P200 million pork barrel allocation?
A news item gave Trillanes’ accounting of his funds as follows: “Trillanes set aside his P100 million purely for infrastructure projects, such as a ‘court cover’ (P1.5 million) in Barangay Baretbet in Bagabag, Nueva Vizcaya, and a hanging bridge (P1 million) in Kalibo, Aklan.”
Well, okay, that’s a total of P2.5 million. That hardly explains where the remainder of the P300 million bonanza went. Trillanes says it’s all explained in his website. Perhaps, a Senate inquisition should go over his figures with the same fine tooth comb that he and Caytano have been using on the Binays.
Until then, it should be fair to ask Trillanes: Is there or isn’t there corruption?
In the story about the adulteress, the Lord Jesus told the Jews who were about to stone the woman to death, “Let him who is without sin among you cast the first stone.”
No one did. Perhaps, neither should Cayetano and Trillanes.
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