Flood control mess makes pork barrel scam seem like 'chump change,' says retired justice

A former presiding justice of the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan said the country's laws and institutions against corruption are insufficient to ensure accountability amid the corruption, which she said made the P10-billion pork barrel scam appear like "chump change."

At a public forum on the flood control project controversy at the University of the Philippines College of Law in Taguig, retired Sandiganbayan Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang said there was a clear institutional failure in one way or another of the agencies involved.

"Are current anti-corruption laws and institutions sufficient to ensure accountability? It almost seems like a comical question with this billion-peso flood control and infrastructure scandal staring the Filipino people in the face," Cabotaje-Tang said.

"Let us tackle the elephant in the room. Corruption exists. And on such a scale as before unimagined, the amounts involved in this ongoing flood control and infrastructure scandal have made the Napoles PDAF seem like chump change," she added.

The pork barrel scam reportedly involved P10 billion worth of Priority Development Assistance Fund allocations of some lawmakers going to bogus non-government organizations of Janet Napoles, in exchange for fat kickbacks.

At a hearing of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee in September, Public Works and Highways Secretary Vince Dizon told senators that losses from anomalous flood control projects could reach up to the trillions of pesos.

"Indeed, as a former magistrate in the Sandiganbayan who participated in the PDAF cases until my retirement in November of last year, the sheer outrageousness of the sums involved in this newest scandal and the blatant non-chalance of the personalities purportedly involved are mind-boggling," Cabotaje-Tang said.

"Accountability was stressed when institutions worked together—the judiciary, the Ombudsman, the Commission of Audit, the Civil Service Commission, the Office of the President, local governments, and civil society organizations," she added.

"Indeed, what is evident from the flood control and infrastructure mess is the institutional failure in one way or another of the agencies involved. Each of these bodies plays a part in creating an ecosystem where corruption is not tolerated, where wrongdoing is swiftly detected, and where consequences are certain," Cabotaje-Tang said.

"It is built by interlocking systems of oversight and consistent enforcement. So, to directly answer the question posed by the organizers, are the current anti-corruption laws and institutions sufficient to ensure accountability? No, absolutely not," she added. 

The Sandiganbayan, Cabotaje-Tang said, is faced with the challenge of the evidence brought before the tribunal.

She indicated that evidence that falls short of proof beyond a reasonable doubt "will often result in otherwise errant public officers going scot-free and allowing the perpetuation of criminal liability."

"The most serious challenge of the Sandiganbayan is the quality of evidence before it. Its decisions can only and should only be based on the legal evidence presented," Cabotaje-Tang said.

"No matter the personal convictions or outright disgust at the scandals laid before it, its magistrates must confine their rulings to the evidence presented," she added.

Cabotaje-Tang said the proper functioning of prosecutorial, investigative, and law enforcement bodies is crucial to the Sandiganbayan's discharge of its functions.

"It has been my long-held belief that the best crafted systems, laws, and perfectly gathered evidence are useless if the men and women tasked to assess them do not possess the required cold neutrality of an impartial judge," Cabotaje-Tang said.

"This ever-widening flood control and infrastructure scandal has cast a spotlight on almost all the ills of government... I dare say, it is high time that the light is also shone directly on the courts to ensure the continued faithful discharge of their functions. For indeed, it would be a tragedy when magistrates are confronted with all the needed evidence and still choose to look away," she added. —NB, GMA Integrated News