I sat through a streaming video coverage of the testimony of Ruby Tuason at the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing on the pork barrel scam. I soon realized that the spectacle was less in aid of legislation than in aid of political vendetta and media posturing.
In this regard, Senators Alan Peter Cayetano and Miriam Defensor-Santiago were their usual scene-stealing selves.
For perspective, the main objective of a Blue Ribbon committee hearing is to provide the basis for necessary legislation, such as laws to plug loopholes in government policies and procedures that abet stealing. The committee and its members have neither the power nor the authority to prosecute, render a verdict or penalize those summoned to testify, except in cases of contempt.
In contrast, it is the job of the Department of Justice to build a case against suspected violators of the law – a case strong enough to translate into a formal indictment to be filed by the Ombudsman which, in turn, can be adjudicated by the Sandiganbayan.
In other words, it is not the job of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee to do a “slam-dunk” or hit a “three-pointer” for purposes of convicting alleged wrongdoers.
The job of the Senate inquiry into the pork barrel scam should be to identify the root of the scam and to trace its route throughout the bureaucracy, pinpointing the vulnerable areas that serve as opportunities for bending or breaking the law.
It shouldn’t take rocket science to deduce that the root cause of the pork barrel plunder was the lack of controls over the disposition by legislators of their respective Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF). One can see how the tempting availability of the funds and thecarte blanche enjoyed by the legislators encouraged “entrepreneurs” like Janet Lim Napoles to conspire with corrupt solons to line their pockets with the money.
But the plunder would not have been possible without the cooperation of key parties in the Department of Budget & Management (DBM) and the Commission on Audit (COA), as well as local government officials. Just as importantly, the scam would not have been possible if there had been strict oversight in the selection and vetting of beneficiary NGOs, and in the review of the authenticity of performance reports.
Have the well-publicized committee hearings, including the last one with Ruby Tuason, focused on these aspects of the scam? Not as far as we can tell.
The way the grilling of Tuason was conducted, the committee members appeared intent on building the case against Senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Jinggoy Estrada, prosecuting them and convicting them even before the Ombudsman had formally indicted them and well before the Sandiganbayan has had a chance to hear the case.
While the free-wheeling media cannot be prevented from sensationalizing and speculating on the guilt of those implicated in the pork barrel scam (until it becomes sub judice), and while a publicity-seeking Secretary of Justice cannot be stopped from claiming a slam-dunk with the testimony of Tuason, the guilt or innocence of suspected senatorial plunderers is something that only the proper courts can decide on.
No matter what the public and the media might think, and no matter what the personal feelings of the committee members might be, they are required by law to accord their accused colleagues the presumption of innocence, until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt.
To use basketball lingo, Committee chairman TG Guingona committed a foul when he described Tuason’s testimony as a “three-pointer.”
The inquisition also focused on the sensational and sexually titillating, with grandstanding solons like Defensor-Santiago playing the role of NBI agent, Justice Secretary, Ombudsman and Sandiganbayan justice all rolled into one, in addition to acting like a cheap showbiz gossip-monger.
In the course of grilling Tuason, Defensor-Santiago kept injecting suggestive comments concerning Enrile’s alleged relations with his chief of staff. You almost expected her to file a bill that would make it illegal for senators to have an affair with office personnel.
For sure, such illicit conduct deserves condemnation, but does it really qualify for a senate committee inquiry “in aid of legislation”?
Meanwhile, Taguig’s Cayetano simply couldn’t resist hitching his personal quarrel with his Makati arch enemies in the course of questioning Tuason. Cayetano slammed VP Jojo Binay’s call for balance and fair play in the case against Enrile and Estrada. And, in a subsequent press release, he asserted that Binay was “scaring away possible witnesses” and “undermining the president’s Daang Matuwid and the efforts of the present administration to prosecute those who stole from the Filipino people.”
Cayetano should realize that virtually convicting a person in a senate committee hearing, even before a fair trial is conducted, is scarier for potential witnesses and a more serious undermining of the Straight Path.
Indeed, balance and fair play should be something Cayetano should be espousing, considering that fellow-senators are involved. Besides, nearly all the members of the legislature, including himself, also availed of the pork.
According to Manila Times columnist Bobi Tiglao, “The senators with the largest (PDAF) allocations in 2012 were Pia Cayetano (P277 million), her brother Alan Peter (P256 million), Antonio Trillanes (P253 million), Teofisto Guingona 3rd (P229 million), and Francis Pangilinan (P227 million).”
Shouldn’t a self-righteous Cayetano volunteer to present a detailed report on the disposition of his pork barrel funds, before presuming moral ascendancy over his peers?
In fact, long before the Supreme Court had decreed the PDAF unconstitutional, shouldn’t past Blue Ribbon committee hearings have produced a bill requiring a thorough audit of the pork barrel disbursements of each and every member of Congress?
Instead of usurping the functions of the Department of Justice, Ombudsman and Sandiganbayan, shouldn’t the current committee hearings focus on filing a bill that will prevent the recurrence of plunder, considering the distinct possibility that the PDAF, deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, could be reincarnated under another name?
And while on the subject, shouldn’t the Blue Ribbon Committee press for the passage of the Freedom of Information Bill, the better to cast the sunlight of public scrutiny on the shadowy machinations of the Legislative, Executive and Judicial branches of government?
Isn’t it the height of hypocrisy for Defensor-Santiago, Cayetano, Guingona and other committee members to crucify Enrile, Estrada and Revilla while resisting public oversight and review of the monkey business of Congress?
By all means, send Enrile, Estrada and Revilla to jail, along with all the others who have stolen public funds, but most important of all, pass legislation that will plug the illegal leaks in the national treasury, including passage of the Freedom of Information Bill.
If that happens, the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee can deservedly claim credit for both a three-pointer and a slam-dunk.
([email protected])
