http://manilastandardtoday.com/2013/09/19/jennys-work-for-noy-1/

Jenny’s work for Noy (2)

By Jojo Robles | Posted on September 19, 2013 at 12:01am | 25,243 views

Part 2 (Conclusion)

In another column, I compared President Noynoy Aquino to Richard Nixon, who was forced to resign to avoid being impeached as a result of the Watergate scandal in the early seventies. The most important question asked of Nixon at the time was: “What did the President know and when did he know it?”

If Aquino insists that he met Janet Lim Napoles only when she “surrendered” to him recently, then he could be facing the most serious crisis of confidence of his three-year-old term. Did the President lie about his relationship with Napoles? What is the true nature of that relationship?

Did Napoles, as she has herself reportedly claimed, really work for Aquino to have former Chief Justice Renato Corona impeached, convicted and removed from office by Congress? Did she do the same work in securing Congress’ approval for Aquino’s controversial Reproductive Health Law, as she also told my source during their meetings last year?

What did the “work” entail? Did it include a spike in the pork barrel funds for congressmen and senators in the critical times right before the Corona impeachment trial and immediately prior to the final deliberations for the RH law, plus quicker “processing” of the Saros and NCAs that Napoles is supposed to have dealt with?

Right now, there is no data from either the Department of Budget and Management, which releases the funds, or the Commission on Audit, which is mandated to examine Congress’ expenditures on an annual basis, to prove that more pork was released during these two important periods. I wonder if that data will ever be released – or if it will be released without being altered to show no substantial increase in pork disbursements at those times.

Of course, there is the testimony of Napoles herself, assuming that she will be allowed in the Senate or in the courts that will hear the cases filed against her to even talk about her purported closeness to Aquino. Will Napoles, like Aquino before her, deny that the two of them had ever met, except casually, like when they were caught on camera in Cebu during a celebration in honor of local saint Pedro Calungsod?

Should Napoles say under oath that Aquino was in no way involved in the racket of stealing Congress’ pork barrel funds, will that be the end of that? Will Aquino no longer be called to account, for instance, for the haste with which he acted on Napoles’ letter last April, complaining that agents of the National Bureau of Investigation were shaking her down?

Finally, will all of these questions, which are central to blowing away the cover of secrecy that has surrounded the large-scale theft of Congress’ pork through brazen Napoles-like methods, be ever answered? At this point, not even the most loyal defenders of Aquino can really say.

Ultimately, Aquino’s own commitment to his supposed anti-corruption campaign will determine if any meaningful reforms will come out of this sensational and long-running scandal. If Aquino attempts to prevent the whole truth from coming out—because he is protecting his allies or even himself—then he will reap the whirlwind.

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As for Napoles, it’s truly ironic that someone whose supposed business was based on close relationships with people in power in both Congress and the Executive has suddenly become the one person none of her well-connected friends will admit to knowing personally. And yet, if Napoles decides to tell everything she knows about her own unique and well-paying trade, no one will be able to deny that the cooperation of powerful people on practically every level of government was required for her schemes to work.

Then there are the politicians who are being singled out as those who worked with Napoles to steal the pork funds and to line their pockets with cash. Will they allow themselves to become the sacrificial lambs to dial down the public’s anger, even if they know that Napoles and her ilk had “clients” who belonged to every political affiliation in Congress and who will seemingly survive every administration in the Executive?

In the beginning, I’m told, both Malacañang Palace and Congress believed that the Napoles story was going to go away, quickly buried by supposedly bigger stories like killer typhoons and attacks by secessionist Moro rebels in Mindanao. But the story has shown remarkable staying power and has even taken a life of its own in all sorts of media, both traditional or online.

The only option left is for everyone involved in the scandal, in whatever branch and level of government, to say what really happened. Only then can we start talking about following the straight path and ending the culture of corruption and impunity that has kept this nation in a near-permanent state of turmoil and despondency for as long as anyone can remember.