Buyer beware

The budget process of the national government is so complex even many lawmakers are befuddled by its intricacies.

So it’s reasonable to believe that only someone with a keen understanding of the process as well as the laws governing non-government organizations could have designed what we call the pork barrel scam.

Businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles says she doesn’t have that kind of savvy, which is her principal argument in pointing to someone else, still unnamed, as her instructor and the architect of the misuse of the congressional pork barrel.

The nation is familiar with the issue: officially called the Priority Development Assistance Fund, the PDAF was allegedly funneled by lawmakers to their own pockets using bogus NGOs set up by Napoles during the administrations of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Noynoy Aquino.

The vaunted daang matuwid or straight path had its own creature called the Disbursement Acceleration Program or DAP, which Jinggoy Estrada blabbed was used as a reward for the 19 senators, including himself, who voted in the impeachment court to convict and oust Renato Corona as chief justice.

Napoles has been accused of involvement in the diversion through fake NGOs even of P900 million from the Malampaya Fund intended for typhoon victims in 2009.

Did she learn this scam by herself, or did someone act as her tutor?

The woman crowned as the pork barrel queen has promised to tell all, now that she has been provisionally accepted into the Witness Protection Program.

*      *      *

It’s not the first time that Napoles has promised to sing, insinuating that she was merely taught by someone else to serve as the implementer of the PDAF scam.

That claim is her ticket to possible acceptance as a state witness. Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II has explained to an incredulous public that there could be someone more guilty than the accused scam mastermind. This can qualify Napoles as a state witness, although not for acquittal in the scam, Aguirre has said.

While Aguirre’s hold on his position appears precarious, his opinion on Napoles seems to be shared by Malacañang.

Since the justice chief himself and “little president” Salvador Medialdea could be coaching Napoles’ camp on what to do (as alleged by her lawyer, but denied yesterday by the executive secretary), her acceptance by the justice department as a state witness is a foregone conclusion.

What’s uncertain are the names on her hit list, which obviously include lawmakers and executive officials in previous administrations.

Some names have been mentioned in the past: Florencio “Butch” Abad, who served as Batanes congressman and then education secretary under Arroyo before becoming Noynoy Aquino’s budget chief and creator of the DAP; Sen. Franklin Drilon, who has denied being close to Napoles, and several other lawmakers.

Napoles might also provide more details on why, upon her surrender, she was picked up from her mother’s tomb at the Heritage Park in Taguig by the presidential spokesman, brought to Malacañang where she faced Noynoy Aquino and his top aides, and then escorted by then interior secretary Mar Roxas to Camp Crame where Aquino later joined them.

Considering the powerful individuals implicated in the pork barrel scam, Aquino and his officials simply wanted to ensure Napoles’ safety, Malacañang explained at the time.

Even back then, Napoles had already offered to turn state witness, according to reports. Palace officials were initially receptive because, they said, the nation deserved the truth.

*      *      *

Eventually, however, tuwid na daan dropped Napoles. In connection with the scam, the Office of the Ombudsman sent to jail without bail three senators who all happened to belong to the opposition: Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Bong Revilla.

And then the prosecution zeal lost steam. Napoles and pork scam whistle-blower Benhur Luy had mentioned other lawmakers, while the Commission on Audit presented the results of its own probe into the scam, which implicated about 200 congressmen and senators, many of them still in office at the time.

The nation waited for more indictments, particularly of prominent Aquino allies… and waited… and waited.

Is the long wait about to end?

If more culprits are identified and appropriate punishment rendered, it could serve as a deterrent to plunder and betrayal of public trust.

Even if Napoles succeeds in proving her claim about the existence of someone higher than her in the pecking order of plunder, she will still be the second most guilty, and she should give up hoping for acquittal. The nation is holding Aguirre to his word that turning state witness would not mean exoneration for Napoles. She must also return all the dirty assets she is accused of accumulating, and her family must not enjoy the proceeds of crime.

The best that Napoles can hope for must be a lighter sentence – the possibility that she might be able to leave the Correctional Institution for Women at least before she turns 80.

Sen. Leila de Lima has warned that when she was the justice secretary and Napoles had first offered to turn state witness, the businesswoman allegedly asked for the names of the individuals the Aquino administration wanted implicated in the scam. On the other hand, lawyer Levito Baligod has accused De Lima of selective prosecution when she was the justice chief, claiming she spared Aquino allies.

 But in fact opposition leaders were principally targeted for pork scam prosecution in the previous administration, with allies spared and one even recruited into the tuwid na daan senatorial slate. Now the justice pendulum is swinging to the other side. If public criticism of Napoles’ possible acceptance as a state witness has been generally tame, it’s because people are wondering if the nation might finally get a broader picture of what happened.

Let the chips fall where they may, but let’s just make sure that what we’re getting is the whole truth. There are gaps in the pork barrel scam story, and Napoles’ camp says she can supply the missing link. But there is always the possibility that Napoles will feed the nation half-truths and outright lies.

In assessing what she has to offer, the government must remember that admonition to consumers: let the buyer beware.