When the whistle blows

By JUAN L. MERCADO
September 15, 2013

“You shall know the truth. And the truth shall make you mad”. That sums up reaction of many to whistleblower Benhur Luy’s testimony, before the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, on the most severe scandal to rock Congress since it opened in 1907.

Clad in a bulletproof vest, and hedged in by three Witness Protection Program guards, the 31-year long-haired former medical technologist testified how legislators swapped their pork barrels for 50 percent kickbacks.

Six senators and 24 congressmen, to date, have been tarred. More names will most likely surface. Ten others are singing on pork dealings of now detained Janet Lim-Napoles.

“The ‘happiest whistle-blower’ in Senate history is Benhur Luy,” Senator Sonny Angara tweeted. “Frequently giggling.” He spoke without notes. “Luy was engaged in a very serious matter,” Inquirer noted. “Possibly even deadly”, specially because he was credible.

“I think he is very believable,” said Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, committee chair. “There is basis to conclude malversation of public funds or plunder (was) committed by some legislators.” Who?

“Pogi” is the code name Napoles used for Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr, earlier reports said Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, 89, is dubbed “Tanda” or “old man”. “Kuya” and “Sexy” are the handles for Sen. Jinggoy Estrada. An entry in one note says P20 million was allotted for “Kuya” and “Sexy.”

Jinggoy Estrada denied ever meeting Luy. “Mamatay man (Let me die if I’m telling a lie),” Estrada told Inquirer. Wait. No need to lay down one’s life for one’s pork. All Estrada needs to remember the Dec. 14, 2000 hearing of the impeachment case against President Joseph Estrada.

Testimony showed Jingoy hefted the name “Jingle Bells” then connection with jeuteng payoffs. Witness Emma Lim said she’d brought P5 million money to Malacanang. Witness Menchu Itchon accompanied jueteng auditor Yolanda Ricaforte to President Estrada where setting up of a casino, called Fontainbleau, using jueteng money was discussed.

Ricaforte has since fled the country. So did Senator Juan Ponce Enrile’s former chief of staff: Jessica Lucila “Gigi” Gonzales-Reyes – two days after Whistleblower No 11 testified she received huge sums from Napoles.

“History repeats itself,” the noted lawyer Clarence Darrow once wrote. “And that's one of the things that’s wrong with history. Look at the track record of whistleblowers here.

Banker Clarissa Ocampo testified that Joseph Estrada signed the notorious Jose Velarde account – which she refused to certify. Threats cascaded in. And she had to leave the country for while. She has now joined ABS/CBN.

Auditor Heidi Mendoza testified on her documentation of a P510-million theft by the AFP Comptroller’s Office. Gen. Carlos Garcia has been convicted. But a partisan Commission on Appointments refused to confirm President Aquino’s appointment of Mendoza as Commission on Audit commissioner – up to this day.

“The nail that sticks out gets hammered down,” the Filipino axiom warns. Ensign Philip Pestaño bucked in 1997 the misuse of Navy boats to haul illegal lumber and drugs. He was shot in his cabin. Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales reinstituted murder charges stalled for decades.

Marian School of Quezon City academic supervisor Antonio Calipjo Go exposed flawed textbooks. False charges were filed against him and some columnists smeared him. Education Secretary Bro. Ermin Luistro, FSC, visited Go to officially convey the Aquino administration’s admiration for his whistle blowing.

Yet, a Quezon City court, upon complaint of a giant publishing company raked profits from miseducating generations thru flawed textbooks, convicted for Antonio Calipjo Go for what? “Light threats”.

After Land Bank’s Acsa Ramirez blew the whistle on tax scams, NBI agents shoved her into a police lineup which President Gloria Arroyo used for photo op. Shanghaied by government agents, Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada testified before the Senate how a ZTE broadband loan, for $132 million, ballooned to $329 million. The overrun authors of this scam remain scot-free. Still guarded by Catholic nuns today, Lozada is harassed by charges.

Primitivo Mijares was one of Ferdinand Marcos’ chief propagandists. He wrote the book “Conjugal Dictatorship” and testified against the dictatorship. Mijares disappeared in 1977 and his 15-year-old son was later found murdered.

Not every whistle-blower is a candidate for beatification. Former police officer Cezar Mancao II, who offered to blow the whistle on the Bubby Dacer murder, bolted NBI custody when courts ordered his transfer to jail. Mancao is still on the lam.

Tell that to the family of Bubby Dacer. The PR man never made his appointment to brief former President Fidel Ramos on scams involving government. He and driver Emmanuel Corbito were intercepted by 22 military agents in Makati. Blindfolded, then strangled, their bodies were burned in Indang, Cavite.

Thieves are lionized, not ostracized, here. Cash ushers them to first places at tables. Those in a position to adopt reforms are often the very persons whistles are blown at. Would Senators Ramon Bong Revilla, Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Gringo Honasan ever scrap the pork barrel? “Though a crow bathes, it remains black.”