Full probe of JLN firm, pork abuse needed

In “Thinking about pork” (Opinion, 8/3/13), Edilberto C. de Jesus, a professor at the Asian Institute of Management, engages in an in-depth discussion of the P10-billion “pork scam,” to which five senators and 23 representatives have been linked.

Reading his comments on the issue, Filipinos must justifiably find it exceedingly troubling that some lawmakers at the highest levels of government, whom they expect to be paragons of honesty, probity and uprightness, turn out instead to be certified scalawags. While it is true, at this point, that only a small percentage of senators and representatives have been reported to be involved in the scam, the fact is the whole Congress has been tarred and stigmatized in the eyes of many people.

Professor De Jesus suggests how Congress can rebuild public trust:

1. Let the debates on this raging issue continue, or scrap the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF or pork barrel) altogether.

2.  The debates should not distract from the task of getting to bottom of the JLN business.

3.  It is necessary to impose sanctions on the guilty.

These suggestions are well-meaning and should go a long way toward not only rebuilding the tattered reputation of the Senate and the House of Representatives, but probably also to curb corruption at the highest levels of government by a significant degree.

The problem is, which organ of government should or will initiate, first, the thorough investigation of those members of Congress who are reportedly involved personally in the P10-billion pork scam; and then, second, the thorough investigation of the JLN business?

As it happens, Congress itself appears lukewarm or cold to the idea of investigating its own members. Is the National Bureau of Investigation up to the task of conducting such a thorough investigation, without fear of reprisal from the Congress itself?

Logically, it is the Department of Justice which should investigate JLN and its reported involvement in this P10-billion scam. Has it begun doing so?

Finally, will the appropriate criminal and/or civil sanctions be imposed on all guilty parties?

—MARIANO PATALINJUG,

[email protected]