I had asserted earlier in a previous article that the investigation on the pork barrel scam should build a case from the ground up without having to be coloured by media and publicity stunts and the noise around these drummed up by the country’s vacuous “activist” mobs. This echoes what Senator Aquilino Pimentel III points out: that there is a paper trail wherever large sums of money change hands and that trail should be used to build a body of evidence out of which the “direction” of the investigation will emerge and suspects identified.
Calling whistle-blower Benhur Luy’s files “useless nonsense,” Pimentel on Friday said the government should spend more time collating official documents to build an airtight case against those responsible for the multibillion-peso pork barrel scam.
Unlike other members of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee, Pimentel saw no need to summon Luy to a public hearing to explain his digital files that detailed transactions between alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles and lawmakers and government officials.
He said the Department of Justice should follow the paper trail by gathering documents such as special allotment release orders, notices of cash allocation, checks and approvals.
“Let’s concentrate on evidence that can be used in the courts of law, not the court of public opinion,” he said.
Better to fizzle out than crash and burn.
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The justice system, presumably, is chugging along connecting the dots and fleshing out the real picture. If it is not, then, hey, perhaps that is the issue these activists should be raising their digital stink about.
Indeed, ironically this is what the first statement in the loudest of these “activist” voices is saying. The second paragraph of a “unity statement” of the so-called “6.12.14 Protest Coalition” of the “Scrap Pork Network” reads…
The painfully slow progress in the investigation and prosecution of the pork scandals involving Janet Lim-Napoles’ network, among others, robs the nation blind in the realms of justice and transparency, and steals energy that could otherwise be focused on development tasks.
We don’t even have to read the rest of the “statement”. The core issue had already been identified at the start of the blurb. Interestingly, the authors of the statement highlight how Filipinos “have been given the run-around” on account of a proliferation of lists and how various “sectors seemingly use and discard lists or delete names according to their interests.” Funny, considering that it is this same activist group that, just a couple weeks back, loudly demanded the lists be released for public consumption, citing a need to “enable citizens to independently inquire into and verify what funds and projects were involved, and who among our public officials may have been involved.”
Well, funny that as this is exactly what we got: “independent inquiries” left and right, uniformed and costumed crusaders swooped in to make makisawsaw — i.e., dip their fingers into the morass and, in the process, stir it up further into an incomprehensible slush.
If these “activists” have, to begin with, applied a clear understanding of the key issue (the quality of the investigation being mounted by the Department of Justice), ignored the pointless distraction (the Napoles Lists) and, instead, focused on pushing for an uplift of the quality of that investigation (gather otherwise readily-available evidence and scientifically piece them together), then perhaps less time would have been wasted.
Don’t just “jail all”, jail the right ones.
Lessons need to be learned so as not to revert back to the bad old days of ocho-ocho “activism” that characterised the mid-2000s. For those lessons to be hammered in, one does need to call out every now and then:
Told ya so.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
‘Oh the humanity’/Zeppelin I/’Shot down inflames’…..
Pimmintel 3rd, is the guy who was screwed out of his congressional seat by Manuel Zubiri.The same Zubiri that acted as if he had ‘nobly’ resigned but only did so as an avenue to doing the exact same thing next election?
The rats and weasels know no bounds.Their stench and trail of filth litter the country.
The fate of the Zeppelin would be a great way to get rid of them, if somehow they all would just get on the same plane, or inhabit the same place.
The Pork Barrel scam is the worse plunder in the history of our country…
I have lost my confidence on the Court of Law. Aquino and his cahoots control the Court of Laws. I don’t believe in the good results of people investigating themselves. Paper trails can lead to nowhere. Much more evidences disappear, like Magic.
If groups of private citizens, would take matters in their own hands, and investigate this scam…I may believe it. Anyway,it is the peoples’ money that was stolen by the Aquino administration…
This is what I have been telling people around me. Napoles, Luy, tanda sexy and pogi, Gigi, etc. are not the only ones who we should be shouting at to “burn at the stake”. Instead trace how the funds changed hands, and all those involved should be held accountable. I just hate people who are quick to condemn these few people when it is really evident that there is a bigger machination involved.
Filipinos now love to harp on about how evil these people are and with the appearance of the said list, they add names to their whims. They love to highlight whistle blowers as if they are the magic pill to convict the guilty which just stupid. We should realize that whistle blowers are still part of the crime committed and that their testimony may or may not be the complete truth, and as such cannot be 100% relied upon.
Common sense dictates, we should trace how the money changed hands, with or without the whistle blowers and their sanitized “lists” and “testimonies”. The senate is hardly in a position to conduct these hearings which should be given as they are already part and parcel of the crime. The longer we wait for the real investigations to be done the colder the money trail becomes and the filipino people end up as the real losers.
People should stop riding on fads such as this coalition. It does not help one bit. It only serves to muddle what is already a murky water of deceit designed to fool each and every honest filipino taxpayer.
Dapat nang matigil korapsyon sa gobyerno. Nagtataka lang ako kung bakit sa NGO’s lang ni Napoles nakatutok ang imbestigasyon. Samantalang 82 bogus NGO’s lahat yon. Natatakot ba sila na lahat ng past and incumbent legislators ay dawit sa anomalya. Maihahalintulad sila sa mga Drug Lords na unti unting pinapapatay ang ating mamamayan. Kurap na opisyales ng gobyerno ang pumapatay sa gutom at sakit sa mga mahihirap nating mamamayan. Imbes na sa edukasyon, ospital magastos ang mga ninanakaw nila.
Wala pang bayan na nakapagtigil sa korupsiyon. Ito any katotohanan. Mapigil mo sa isang parte, pero hindi lahat.
Ang korupsiyon sa atin ay laganap. Dahil kunsintidor si Aquino sa mga korup na kasama niya…siya mismo ang koruptor…
Tama ka, Laganap na ang kurapsyon sa ating bansa. Bayaran ang ating Media kaya di gaanong nalalathala, NAALALAYAN PA ng SWS at Pulse Asia kaya di nababatikos ng Media,
Wala namang nagawa ang Administrasyong ito kundi pagnanakaw lang. Lahat naman ng humipo ng Pork Barrel nakapagbulsa.
Scrap the entire government, redistribute 85% of the wealth ala Henry VIII and it would be a good start for what needs to happen in this failed state of a country.
Kung may paper trail yang Pork Barrel Scam na yan na alam naman natin na ang nag mamaneobra niyan ay ang Sindikatong Dilaw sa pamumuno ni BS Aquino bakit umaasa sila sa Listahan ni Napoles?
Hindi lang ang Pork Barrel ang mga anomalyang nangyayari simula ng umupo siya sa Malasyañang. Talamakang korapsyon mag mula sa PDAF, DAP, Malampaya Funds at ang ultimong mga Foreign Donations para sa Typhoon Yolanda ay kinulimbat nila.
Since ang Yellow Ribbon ay ang Simbolong gustong gustong gamitin ni BS Aquino, mas maigi pang yan ang gawin nating Simbolo ng Korapsyon upang sa tuwing makikita natin ang Yellow Ribbon na yan maaalala natin ang talamak na Korapsyong naganap sa Termino ni BS Aquino.
Mga Pinoy Zombies lang ang naniniwala sa mga Propaganda ng Sindikatong Dilaw.