Napoles is the Most Appropriate

State Witness in Pork Barrel Scam

By Apolinario Villalobos

If Duterte would like to dig up the roots of the pork barrel scam the investigation of which he would like to reopen, the most appropriate state witness is Napoles. Only she knows who were the government officials, lawmakers and the responsible agency staff who manipulated the “operation”, and likewise, benefited from the scam.

As a practice, government “commissioners” would come up with projects from which they could derive “fat commissions”. The project is complete with ways on how to circumvent restrictive laws and cohorts such as NGOs and sources of funding. The NGOs serve as “conduits” of funds from financiers which in the case of the pork barrel scam is Napoles. In other words, she was used by the government officials and knowledgeable agency staff, as they know when funds would be released for certain projects. These government people tell Napoles what to do to get hold of the fund. Meanwhile, in most cases, she may have already “advanced” the commission of the concerned government officials. The system literally makes Napoles, “buyer” of projects.

If Napoles shall surface as a prime state witness, the statements of government officials about their signature being forged shall definitely crumble. Although, it is true that concerned officials did not sign the documents personally, they may have given the authority to Napoles or her staff to forge their signature, as what Benhur Luy had been alleging, so that the processing of documents could be facilitated even without them (government officials) around. This is the technicality that “BRIGHT” lawyers of crook officials always use. Forging signatures in official documents is very prevalent….and everybody knows that!

Finally, if the scheme of making Napoles the principal witness in the reopening of the pork barrel scam cases would materialize, it will definitely make the world of erring government officials smaller day by day….