Author Topic: Another look at our investigating Senate Blue Ribbon Committee (Read 2089 times)

islander · « **on:** February 13, 2014, 04:28:04 PM »

the philippine senate blue ribbon committee continues its investigation of the pork barrel scam, with ruby tuason as the latest whistle-blower testifying today. (the following are excerpts from Some sobering truths about the pork barrel scam probe by Yen Makabenta, The Manila Times, February 12, 2014.) a good read, i must say.

1. Six months, 16 days and no end in sight

It is now six months and 16 days since the blue ribbon committee started its hearings on August 29, 2013. Everyone involved has gotten older, hopefully, with their health intact (Senate minority leader Juan Ponce Enrile will turn 89 tomorrow). One accountant has calculated that the spectacle has already cost the government over ten million in precious funds that would have been better spent in creating jobs. After all the drama and senatorial posturing, few facts have been established. The public still does not know whether a scam was perpetrated at all, or whether Napoles or some senators were involved.

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islander · « **Reply #1 on:** February 13, 2014, 04:50:55 PM »

Frustrating and squalid though the probe may be, it would make matters worse to cut off the hearings without reaching a conclusion. This is a committee acting under the authority of the Senate and inquiring into the evident plunder of public funds by high officials of the government. The country needs to be shown to the bitter end, how billions have been misused or stolen for the pork barrel of our legislators.

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islander · « **Reply #2 on:** February 13, 2014, 04:51:53 PM »

2. The best and the brightest?

A second truth to ponder is that the term â€blue ribbonâ€ may be a misnomer for the investigating committee.

Its true name, according to the Senate directory, is Committee on the Accountability of Public Officers and Investigations.

The retention of a blue ribbon committee in the current Senate is a concession to our history and tradition. The American Senate and other congresses do not have one. We created the first blue ribbon committee in 1949, when newly-elected senator Justiniano Montano of Cavite proposed it as a means to investigate the administration of then president Elpidio Quirino.

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islander · « **Reply #3 on:** February 13, 2014, 04:52:36 PM »

In American practice, when a panel is billed as â€œblue ribbon,â€ such as a blue-ribbon commission, it is to signify that it will investigate a grave question and the panel will be composed of â€œexceptionalâ€ personages. The â€œblue ribbonâ€ aspect comes from the presentation of the panel as â€œthe best and brightest.â€ It oftentimes includes experts and academics.

Two notable US blue ribbon panels in history are the Warren Commission which investigated the Kennedy Assassination, and the 9/11 Commission which investigated the September11 terrorist attacks in the US.

In this country, a blue ribbon inquiry is run of the mill.

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islander · « **Reply #4 on:** February 13, 2014, 04:52:56 PM »

Our present Blue Ribbon committee consists of 17 regular members and three ex-officio members, nearly all senators, except three. Only senators Vicente Sotto III and Bong Revilla , and Senate President Franklin Drilon are not listed as members; they will resent the impression that they are not among the best and brightest.

Vigilant watchers of the inquiry will also complain about the claim to exceptionalism. The questioning of the witnesses has been second-rate, self-serving.and strictly for media exposure.

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islander · « **Reply #5 on:** February 13, 2014, 04:53:54 PM »

3. Congressional Oversight: linchpin of democracy

Congressional oversight is a major component of the constitutional system of checks and balances. The Senate, as well as the Lower house, exercise this function through hearings and selective investigations of executive actions in order to ensure that the president and the bureaucracy are carrying out the laws as Congress intended. How the executive implements the laws is often a point of friction between the two branches.

Author and constitutional law and civil rights litigator Glenn Greenwald contends that congressional oversight is â€œthe linchpin of how democracy works.â€ Elaborating, he says:

â€œOversight is critical, because as a country (meaning the US) we simply do not trust, and never have trusted our government officials to act properly when they can act in secret and with no checks.â€

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islander · « **Reply #6 on:** February 13, 2014, 04:54:45 PM »

If Americans distrust their public officials, Filipinos distrust theirs even more. Only the paid survey firms, SWS and Pulse Asia, talk about the people trusting government officials and phony trust ratings. Even our public officials, in their heart of hearts, do not have a high opinion of their calling; they are always talking about what other officials are getting away with.

The publicâ€™s hope is that what is learned in oversight will be reflected in changes to the laws that give agencies their power and operating funds. There is a command that every inquiry must be conducted in aid of legislation.

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islander · « **Reply #7 on:** February 13, 2014, 04:55:21 PM »

The great political philosopher Walter Lippmann cited the abuse that occurs when a congressional committee takes over powers that belong to the executive and to the judicial branch. He warns of a derangement of functions that would ensue. I paraphrase below his key points, and I submit that the blue Ribbon committee would do well to listen:.

â€œSince the Department of Justice was already investigating the P10-billion pork barrel scam, why is the Senate investigating it as well? If the department has found that wrongdoing was committed, then it is its dutyâ€” the duty of the Executiveâ€”to take the case to the courts.

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islander · « **Reply #8 on:** February 13, 2014, 04:55:58 PM »

For what purpose did the Senate, through the blue ribbon committee, get into the act? Is it presuming to substitute itself for the justice department in investigating the matter. Is there any legislation contemplated or required? Is it investigating anything that is its business as a legislature, which makes the laws and then inquires into whether they are faithfully and efficiently administered and enforced.

If not, says Lippmann, the Senate would be usurping a power which belongs to the executive branch of government.

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islander · « **Reply #9 on:** February 13, 2014, 04:57:30 PM »

4. Who is driving this melodrama?

The Senate spectacle bears all the marks of a bad movie.

Thereâ€™s plenty of overacting, plenty of platitudes, and plenty of hypocrisy and self-promotion.

After six months of inquiry, we still donâ€™t know who is driving this probe. Is it the administration, with blue ribbon chair Teofisto Guingona as stalking horse? Is it Secretary De Lima, with her control of witnesses and witness protection program?

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islander · « **Reply #10 on:** February 13, 2014, 04:58:25 PM »

Guingona betrays his partiality by desisting so far from summoning Budget Secretary Florencio Abad and junior DBM officials to shed light in the inquiry. Thereâ€™s a black hole in the P10-billion scam story, because no money could have been stolen without DBM collusion. This is absurd because a congressional investigation is an investigation of the executive acts. It is not an in-house ethics inquiry in the Senate. That work would belong to another committee.

Can Guingona prove that a scam was perpetrated without DBM confirming it and owning up to its release of the monies?

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islander · « **Reply #11 on:** February 13, 2014, 04:59:01 PM »

The integrity of the inquiry hangs on this question. Abad could invoke executive privilege in order to prevent the truth from coming out. But if he does , public opinion will become critical. We will be in Nixon and Watergate territory.

Are the Opposition and the accused senators driving the inquiry through a clever defense strategy? They are the ones under constant attack, yet every time they punch back, the Administrationâ€™s destroy-the-opposition strategy is sent reeling. DAP is now a bigger headache than PDAF. Bong Revillaâ€™s revelations have unhinged the scoring.

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islander · « **Reply #12 on:** February 13, 2014, 04:59:27 PM »

The media is not just an innocent observer of the hearings. By putting every hearing on live TV, the networks have become a major player in this drama. If they drop the live TV coverage, public interest in the probe will be nada. The inquiry will stop.

Thereâ€™s a lot of partisanship in the media, as well as a lot of superficiality. The personages touted as legal luminaries do not illuminate at all.

Print media has the advantage of having more time to put two and two together, provide more background, and research the finer points of inquiry.

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islander · « **Reply #13 on:** February 13, 2014, 05:00:50 PM »

5. A political or judicial exercise?

During the impeachment trial of former Chief Justice Renato Corona, the prosecutors and administration senators swore from beginning to end that the trial was a political, not a judicial, process. Only politics and numbers mattered.

Not so with the pork barrel inquiry. All the actors have carefully concealed the politics of the process. Senator Guingona and other administration senators have played inscrutable. The administration wonâ€™t say that it is just a political process. A game of numbers. That would give the game away.

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islander · « **Reply #14 on:** February 13, 2014, 05:01:24 PM »

The opposition for its part appears to be playing a crafty rope-a-dope strategy, hoping that De Lima, like George Foreman, will punch herself to exhaustion. The kiss-and-tell witnesses could be unreliable; they are singing in order to avoid prosecution.

If she can invoke basketball as metaphor, the opposition can use boxing in return.

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islander · « **Reply #15 on:** February 13, 2014, 05:50:22 PM »

6. The Big Lie and the Multiple Lie

Finally, it is worth recalling that Sen. Joseph McCarthy gave his name to witch-hunting via the Senate inquiry process.

Richard Reeves, writing about Senator McCarthy, wrote about two kinds of lies that the public must zealously guard against. They are:

First, The Big Lie â€“ a lie that is so gross, so big, that ordinary minds believe it. Adolf Hitler, said Reeves, was a master of the big lie â€“, notably, his racist lie about the Jews which led to the Holocaust of the second world war.

De Limaâ€™sâ€ truckloads of evidenceâ€ looks like a prime example of the big lie.

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islander · « **Reply #16 on:** February 13, 2014, 05:51:30 PM »

Second, The multiple lie â€“ a lie which, like an octopus, has so many tentacles and so many claims that ordinary minds get exhausted in comprehending it. The multiple lie was McCarthyâ€™s specialty. He claimed that there were communists all over the US government and in American society. He was so successful, even Hollywood was subjected to a witch-hunt.

The tale of the whistleblowers, with so many witnesses, and Benhur-Luy forging countless signatures, is a multiple lie.

And so, with bated breath, I await Ruby Tuasonâ€™s testimony today. Letâ€™s see whether she can advance the publicâ€™s hope that this costly Senate investigation will turn up a final nail on the coffin of the pork barrel, and help in nailing the DAP as well.

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Author Topic: Another look at our investigating Senate Blue Ribbon Committee (Read 2089 times)

islander

Another look at our investigating Senate Blue Ribbon Committee

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