BY SAMMY JULIAN
LEST he be accused of riding the high horse on his reelection bid through media mileage, Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, in his capacity as Blue Ribbon Committee chair, should, once and for all, declare publicly that the Senate’s pork barrel probe has ended.
We do not care if he uses Power Point to present what has been achieved by his committee’s pork barrel hearings. We also could not care less if he beckons all the media entities in the country just to make such an announcement. What we sincerely desire is a proper ending to a long-running soap opera.
Such an announcement would have an impact completely the opposite of that produced by Guingona’s move to release to the press a 122-page report on the findings and recommendations of their legislative investigation into the alleged P10-billion pork barrel scam.
Who would ever forget that day when Guingona, with his flair for dramatics, narrated anew how businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles allegedly stole from public coffers in cahoots with the three senators, several congressmen, other government officials and private individuals. The implicated lawmakers of the previous Congress allegedly coursed through bogus non-government organizations (NGOs) under the control of Napoles various amounts of their respective Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).
In the end, we were informed by the senator that it was just a draft report anyway.
What? Did he mean it was not a committee report but just the panel chairman’s opinion?
Well, despite it’s still being a draft report, Guingona went to town with the Senate Blue Ribbon committee report even as no other members had yet to sign it.
Somebody should have reminded the Blue Ribbon chair that these Senate investigations were supposed to be “in aid of legislation”, not a way to earn brownie points for one’s self.
Because of this, Guingona earned loads of criticism from every sector of society, even from his colleagues.
“He should have been more circumspect before making any public announcement,” one senator was quoted as saying.
“He should have consulted the members of the committee first before making the announcement,” another declared.
“It would have been better had Guingona given the members of the Blue Ribbon committee the courtesy of showing the draft report before making it public,” someone else said. “At least, we could have indicated our reservations or objections, if there are any, to the report.”
Obviously, he wanted a slum dunk, not a three-point shot.
In legal parlance, “slam dunk” is to secure court conviction. But there is such a thing as technical foul in a basketball court that could void the score.
Well, Sen. Guingona, now is your time to make that slam dunk you have been craving for ever since the pork barrel probe commenced in the halls of the Senate: call an end to the investigations and let the law take its due course without you muddling the case./PN
