Thank Goodness Some Senators are Finally Talking Sense

I laud Sentor Santiago’s dismissive disfavor of a Senate inquiry into the 10 Billion-Peso Philippine Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) scam allegedly perpetrated by Janet Lim-Napoles, and implicating lawmakers from whose pork barrels (proving to be, now more than ever, an apt epithet for PDAF) funds were drawn and funneled to bogus Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) allegedly created by Napoles.

Senator Peter Cayetano also aired his reservation saying he preferred an investigation by the Department of Justice.

With two no-nonsense senators doubting its own (senate’s) effectiveness in conducting investigations, especially on issues where its otherwise prominent members are accused of wrongdoing, which quite often end up like premature campaigns/grandstanding and all, I hope the Senate has finally spoken some sense into this issue.

Senator Escudero must back down, and instead join the two senators in indorsing either the Office of the Ombudsman or the Department of Justice (DOJ) or joint, considering the limited human resource at the Ombudsman office, for the conduct of thorough investigation on the issue.

As of this writing former Justice and now Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales, and DOJ Secretary Leila De Lima must be psyched up of the prospect of this war-like coalesced endeavor considering the public outrage and indignation the issue has spawned.

Let us not forget and sidestep our Accounting stalwart Heidi Mendoza, now a Commissioner at the Commission on Audit (COA), who is definitely a fit to this gargantuan task.

The people are worn out by, and dead tired of, all these anomalous scandals involving often, if not always, politicians and appointive officials, so-called public servants.

It is high time we demanded as a people that those involved be brought to justice and if proven guilty in the courts of law, sent to jail without exception, fear or favour.

We’ve been called “boss” all too often, let’s flex our boss muscles now: wring the truth into the open, and wheel the perpetrators to penitentiaries where they belong. That’s a much better use of taxpayers’ money.