HASN’T it been almost a year now since Benhur Luy became whistleblower on his former employer, the alleged PDAF scam mastermind, Janet Lim Napoles?
Shocked at knowing a former employee could actually dare to take her down, despite her wealth (even if ill-gotten) and connections, didn’t Napoles and her camp respond with squid tactics?
That Benhur Luy had absconded with P300,000 from her coffers (read: including a bathtub overflowing with moola)? That supposedly he had “gender-confusion issues”?
That the term “whistleblower” was an appropriately pejorative term to mean his sexual preferences?
So, what has been accomplished so far since July 2013?
Napoles surrendered to P-Noy himself because according to her lawyer then, Lorna Kapunan, Napoles was afraid for her life and could trust only P-Noy.
In November 2013, Napoles appeared for the first time before the Senate blue ribbon committee probing the pork barrel scam. Everyone, including the committee chairperson Teofisto Guingona III and Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, thought Napoles would spill the beans right there and then.
There she was, haggard-looking and wearing a bullet-proof vest as if expecting assassins’ guns coming out of nowhere and blazing at her. But the only bullet, if ever there was that came out, was a dud.
Even Santiago could not hide her irritation when Napoles’s sure answers were nothing more than “Hindi ko alam.” The only truth that emerged then--she was wasting everybody’s time, including those glued to both radio and television.
Since July 2013, lawyers have changed--for Napoles, for Luy as well. Kapunan cited dissimilarity of approaches between hers and other Napoles lawyers. Luy’s Levito Baligod was more discreet and used the post-Luy months preparing for his wedding.
In time, napulis si Napoles, and so off she went to a detention cell in Fort Santo Domingo. But wait, her blood pressure shot up unusually high, she had bouts with fever, could not sleep well.
Then she had bleeding, owing to her uterine cyst. So off she went to the Ospital ng Makati (Osmak) where she underwent surgery last month. There her cyst was reportedly removed, along with her uterus and two ovaries.
Could she stay longer at Osmak, please, according to her lawyers, so she could have regular check-ups with her doctors? Not so fast, my dear lady; Osmak gynecologist Florentina Villanueva said the bleeding had stopped.
Thanks to Judge Elmo Alameda of the Makati City Regional Trial Court said Napoles’s “zeal to avail (herself) of continued health care…. should not exceed the bounds of the law, for she remains to be an accused for an unbailable offense.”
Hallelujah! Now, that’s welcome common sense! It’s good to know that not everyone is blinded by Napoles’s billions.
Have we seen some heads roll yet? Has any implicated senator (calling, calling Juan Ponce “Tanda” Enrile, Bong “Pogi” Revilla and Jinggoy “Sexy” Estrada!) resigned yet? Oops, “delicadeza” is a thing of the past!
Besides, haven’t others been implicated as well, including 120 solons per Napoles, triggering denials and libel threats from those in the lists?
Who’s to say which list has not been sanitized? Not adulterated? Luy’s list? Napoles’s list? The DOJ secretary’s? Ping Lacson’s?
Close to one year since Luy blew the whistle, and where exactly are we? In July last year, Luy already had his list of PDAF recipients. Today, that list has multiplied, with different authorships.
Activities, activities, and as yet, no real results!
(lelani.echaves@gmail.com)