BY SAMMY JULIAN
Manila News Bureau Chief
MANILA – Whether friend or foe, the Aquino administration will bring to court those who have misused their Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).
Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda denied that Malacañang is focusing the investigation and the filing of charges related to the pork barrel controversy only on the opposition.
“That is clearly not true,” Lacierda said in a press briefing. “Just to remind everyone, we already filed a case against one of the allies of the President; and in fact, that was something that all of you reported.”
Lacierda was referring to Ruffy Biazon, Muntinlupa representative from 2001 to 2010 and a party-mate of President Benigno Aquino III.
Biazon’s name was among the 34 individuals comprising the second batch of respondents in the malversation, direct bribery and graft and corrupt practices complaints filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) before the Ombudsman.
“What does this mean? We are color blind with respect to any investigation that involves anyone involved in the PDAF scam,” said Lacierda.
With respect to other non-government organizations which are not connected to trader Janet Lim-Napoles and which also included legislators in the Commission on Audits (COA) Special Audit Report from 2007 to2009, Lacierda said these are being looked into by the Inter-Agency Anti-Graft Coordinating Council (IAAGCC ).
“So these things have a process of investigation, evaluation and the filing of complaint,” he stressed. “We’ve seen the first few. Let us just wait for the process to take its course.”
With regards to claims that Budget Secretary Butch Abad has been excluded from a new complaint to be filed in the Ombudsman over the P10-billion pork barrel scam, Lacierda pointed out that his name is actually not in the COA report.
“You can check the COA report,” he said. “Secretary Abad’s name is not in the COA report.”
Lacierda pointed out that it was Napoles who claimed that Abad showed his Special Allotment Release Order (SARO) to her.
He said Napoles claimed that this supposed SARO came from the Batanes Electric Cooperative.
“The statement of Napoles is simple so we verified her claim,” Lacierda disclosed. “We discovered that there was no such SARO. The Batanes Electric Cooperative also issued a statement denying there was such a SARO.”
The bottom line, the Presidential spokesperson pointed out, “is really where the evidence is, and we will go where the evidence will lead us.”/PN
