Cynical business

The corruption at the core of the so-called pork barrel scam was defined by a cynical business model: Illegal wealth can be made by coursing government funds to fake projects or through bogus nongovernment organizations. Government prosecutors accuse alleged scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles of sharing the criminal proceeds with those legislators who used their privileged role in the budget process to “recommend” the projects or the NGOs.

Recently disclosed findings by the Commission on Audit yet again confirm the general pattern of the scam. Unlike other, older forms of corruption, where projects are still implemented and unscrupulous officials and operators are content with a portion of the project funds, the new corruption of which the scam is both proof and example does away with the projects altogether; all of the money goes into the well-lined pockets of conniving officials and operators.

But the new COA findings also remind us of two other realities. First, the business model of the pork barrel scam was not exclusive to Napoles and could not have been; other NGOs entirely unconnected to her were also the dubious recipients of government funds. Second, low-profile or obscure government agencies are especially vulnerable to manipulation.

Take the case of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos, an agency unfamiliar even to many Muslim Filipinos. According to the COA, the NCMF released between 2011 and 2013 a total of P670 million in Priority Development Assistance Fund and Disbursement Acceleration Program monies to dubious NGOs and questionable suppliers. Sen. Gregorio Honasan allegedly coursed P30 million of his pork barrel allocation to fake foundations; Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, who is in detention while facing plunder and graft charges, allegedly redirected P25 million. Aside from these two senators, 47 representatives—many of them political allies of President Aquino—also channeled their allocations to made-up NGOs and suspect suppliers.

The COA findings highlighted two key issues: selection of recipients and scale of the scam.

“It is the audit team’s view that the selection of NGOs/POs (people’s organizations) should be undertaken by the NCMF because the funds were released to NCMF, thus, it is duty bound to account [for] the said funds to the government and/or to the beneficiaries.”

In reality, the selection was made by the senators and representatives involved. The NCMF issued a denial: “It is incorrect to say that the NCMF allowed the legislators to impose their chosen NGOs without checking the eligibility of these NGOs.” But the COA found a distinct correlation between the endorsement or selection of projects with the source of the pork barrel funds—that is, a project that was funded by a specific legislator’s allocation was often managed by an NGO or PO that the legislator had himself selected.

At the same time, the NCMF acknowledged in its response to the COA findings that it had in fact allowed the legislators to choose the NGO-recipients themselves, because it was standard “practice.” The NCMF said the legislators followed a rigorous 15-point accreditation process.

But how rigorous could the process have been if, out of the 21 NGOs or POs recommended or endorsed by legislators in the disbursement of funds intended for Muslim Filipinos, it turns out that fully 15 of them were either unknown or could not be located during the COA’s January 2014 inspection? And each of the remaining six had valid addresses but no evidence of ongoing operations.

That the top nine NGOs used to funnel NCMF project money did not include any of the organizations associated with Napoles indicates that the pork barrel scam was not limited to the woman’s operations alone. (Indeed, in Napoles’ own reckoning, or at least one version of it, she was the victim of the true mastermind.)

The new twist to the saga of the pork barrel scam is the use of the NCMF as source and clearinghouse of the allocations. Who cares about the preservation of Muslim Filipino culture, the scammers, in their practiced cynicism, must have asked themselves. There are private pockets to be lined.