(Eagle News) — Senator Leila de Lima described President Rodrigo Duterte as a “weak and incompetent” leader “incapable of stopping corruption,” following the allegations of corruption being hurled at some members of the House of Representatives and at his Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno.
“I winced upon reading in the news that, according to (House Majority Leader Rolando) Andaya, projects worth P75 billion had already been bid out even before the passage of the budget, with 30 infrastructure projects given to a Bulacan-based contractor whose SEC registration and standing is highly questionable. This display of corruption is execrable,” De Lima, who is detained on drug-related charges, said.
Andaya had accused Diokno of having links with the contractor, but Diokno has denied this.
This was after Senator Panfilo Lacson said a district in Camarines Sur, Andaya’s district, and Pampanga, Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s province, had cornered “congressional insertions” in the proposed national budget for 2019 of the House.
According to De Lima, the “earnest question” was “sino o sinu-sinong malalaking tao ang pumapadrino sa Bulacan contractor na ito?”
She said It was “hard to believe that this was not done by a clique of insiders in Malacañang, but it is much harder to believe that Duterte has neither hand nor knowledge about this.”
“And there’s the so-called ‘parked pork’. I too would urge Sen. Lacson to tell us who is this Senate staffer and the others who are involved in this scheme. And the latest exposé as disclosed by one of the protagonists – the road user’s tax. Corruption galore indeed! Their greed knows no bounds,” she said, noting also what she said was the “circus” and the “royal rumble” between Duterte’s “political allies, political vultures” or Arroyo versus former Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, and Reps. Andaya and Danilo Suarez versus Budget Secretary Diokno–over what she said were the “billions of ‘pork’ largesse sneakily inserted into the proposed national budget.”
“Meantime, the lawmakers involved in the (Janet Lim) Napoles (Priority Development Assistance Fund) Scam are still celebrating because they know that the recent acquittal of one of them has set favourable precedent for them. Nagpipyesta ang mga mandarambong!,” she said, apparently referring to former Senator Bong Revilla, who was recently acquitted by the Sandiganbayan of plunder.
Revilla had been accused of pocketing millions of pesos in kickbacks from his pork barrel funds by allocating them in Napoles’ fake non-government organizations.
Napoles and Revilla’s former chief of staff Richard Cambe were, however, sentenced to reclusion perpetua.
“Ito ba ang presidenteng galit daw sa kurapsyon pero sa loob lamang ng dalawang taon ay napalaya ang mga malalaking pulitikong nasangkot sa pandarambong? Bakit tahimik sya sa isyu ng pork barrel kung saan bilyun-bilyon ng pondo ng bayan ang nanganganib mapunta na naman sa bulsa ng mga tiwaling mambabatas?” De Lima asked.
