[Slingshot] Are the big fishes swimming away?

Stated in another way more forthright, are we seeing a Janet Lim Napoles part 2?

It wasn’t just the deja vu of seeing Sarah Discaya arrested and handcuffed, followed by the customary mug shots and finger printing. It is having the eerie suspicion again, that stealing of public funds does not put politicians in jail.  Napoles faces multiple penalties of reclusion perpetua. Bong Revilla, Jinggoy Estrada and Juan Ponce Enrile were freed. There were other politicians convicted with her but they have not been jailed.

Is the dramarama on a reprise?

“Powerful politicians will be in jail by Christmas.” Who announced that? President Marcos Jr. did on November 13. The statement was electrifying because it had no precedent: “Many of at least 37 powerful senators, members of Congress, and wealthy businesspeople implicated in a massive corruption scandal involving flood control projects would be locked up in jail by Christmas,” he said.

Why should the Filipino people not pin their hopes on that when, on December 6, the Ombudsman buttressed the same statement: “It is almost certain that some high-ranking officials would spend Christmas in jail.”

It is now New Year’s Eve, and only Sarah Discaya is in jail. The message appears to be that there are powerful names the Marcos Jr. government will not confront.

If even the present dispensation is afraid to touch the Dutertes, then this massive scandal will remain as it is — a massive scandal veiled and clouded in time by impunity and entitlement of the high and the mighty. Evidence now stares at us that the practice of budget insertions began under the Duterte regime. There is a paper trail — DPWH documents manifested in the House by ACT Teachers Representative Antonio Tinio. 

In 2019 when the 2020 budget was being deliberated, presidential daughter Sara Duterte, then Davao City mayor, asked for her own budget insertions. She wanted 16 road projects (15 for Davao City, 1 for Davao del Sur). The total insertion was P1 billion, on top of the P51 billion “allocable” for her congressman brother Paolo. 

Note well that until today, Paolo has not delivered an accounting of his huge allocable. Where did it go? He has evaded appearing before the Independent Commission on Infrastructure.  But we know that in 2020 alone, Paolo’s initial tranche was P13.7 billion. No other congressman was gifted with the same staggering largesse.

Not to be outdone, the then-Palace spokesperson Harry Roque had four budget insertions in the 2020 General Appropriations Act. A spokesperson with infrastructure projects is sheer absurdity.  But it was in the 2020 GAA for projects in Ifugao, Batangas, Cavite, and Laguna. 

Cabinet secretaries with their hands in the cookie jar continued to the succeeding administration.  Senator Ping Lacson bared that at least five secretaries and some undersecretaries had allocables. 

What exactly are allocables? Cathy Cabral defined it in Congress as akin to pork barrel. Imagine the eccentricity: Why would Cabinet secretaries have pork barrel? Lacson named Manuel Bonoan and Lucas Bersamin as among the five. If that is the case, when will they be investigated?

And then there are the Duterte flag wavers, the brothers Eric and Edvic Yap. The money trail for Edvic Yap’s anomalies is in the Anti-Money Laundering Council. Edvic allegedly received billions of pesos from contractors linked to the flood  control anomalies. 

The Court of Appeals has frozen the Yap bank accounts, P16 billion worth of properties, and other assets linked to the brothers who are both incumbent congressmen. It is AMLC that has the money trail because it was the AMLC that sought the freeze order covering the Yaps’ 280 bank accounts, three securities accounts, 22 insurance policies, and other assets. 

But the public wants to know: When will the Yaps be handcuffed and have their mug shots taken? They are key Duterte supporters. 

And then the billion-peso question on everyone’s mind: When will Chiz Escudero, Joel Villanueva, Jinggoy Estrada be jailed? They are the big fishes just like their Duterte gods.

Last November, graft raps were filed against Escudero in the Ombudsman. Will that take forever?

Both Estrada and Villanueva deny the allegations against them. But when will the investigations reach a conclusion? Never? If we go by the Napoles template, impunity may win over public interest and rule of law.

Even the trillion-peso rallies will not be feared by these thieves. Even social media anger will not be enough to break the thick-faced nonchalance of power and its abuses.– Rappler.com