Bring out the popcorn!” is the purported exclamation of netizens, TV watchers and political observers whenever Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago joins the Blue Ribbon committee hearings on public pangurakot (thievery) by government officials and private individuals.
The national outcry speaks a lot of how people assess the legislative hearings: like a telenovela where dark secrets of the high and mighty are exposed for people to feast on. People watch telenovelas to escape the drudgery of their ordinary lives, and to watch the rich and famous toppled down from the pedestal in public hearings maybe like watching a telenovela turn into a reality show.
Most people have lost faith in the justice system because legislative probes into the fertilizer scam, rice smuggling and drug trafficking have yielded nothing. On the other hand, people sit up and take another look when Senator Santiago makes her presence felt in the Senate hearings.
For one thing, the lady senator does not mince words and inquire into issues that some senators would rather not bring up. In the current pork barrel scam, Santiago brings her knowledge of the law by applying legal principles into the case at hand. She is aware that the public is very keen so she weaves legal prowess into flamboyant style and that keeps us all engaged in the affairs of the government.
Patrick Henry, one of the great founding fathers of the United States, once said, “The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active and the brave.”
In last Thursday’s Senate blue ribbon committee hearing on the pork barrel scam, Santiago expressed dismay that only nine out of 24 senators of the republic attended the session. Clad in a light gold business suit, she almost denounced her absent colleagues for staying out of the hearing on “the worst financial scandal in Philippine politics and its entire history.”
True to form, she raised a question that sounded more like scathing opinion, “Did someone tell them or pay them not to appear here?” Later during the hearing, she alluded to some absent senators by their names which the whistle blowers mentioned in pork barrel scam transactions.
In addition to “sexy”, “pogi” and “tanda,” Santiago referred to “bigote”, “dahon” and “bongets.” If the audience was attentive, Santiago’s comments hinted at why some senators were no-shows during Thursday’s hearing.
The Senate committee hearings on the priority development assistance funds (PDAF) scam are always covered live by all commercial TV stations.
The hearings pre-empt daytime programming, which means the coverage enjoys a wide viewership and high ratings.
I think the ratings vary, depending on who is summoned and scheduled to attend either as witness or resource person. When Benhur Luy and other whistle blowers first appeared before the committee in August last year, the ratings shot up. It hit the roof when Janet Lim Napoles, alleged mastermind of the pork barrel scam faced the Senate panel.
However, when socialite Ruby Chan Tuason was admitted as provisional witness and faced the legislative probe last week, her appearance broke all TV box-office records.
This is because for the first time in Philippine politics, a member of high society has come out to reveal what she knows of corruption in very high places.
The alta-sociedad usually shuns scandals and controversies and outside of gossiping, do not tell on neighbors and friends. But Tuason decided to throw caution to the wind. She was categorical about the involvement of Senator Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada, son of a former president who is a very close friend.
She was not very firm about Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, but she revealed what she knew about his chief of staff, lawyer Jessica Lucilla Reyes.
Julie Yap Daza wrote in her column last Thursday that she and her friends booked a private room in a pizzeria to watch Tuason’s performance on TV. The columnist spoke of Tuason’s charmed life as Erap’s social secretary and took note of her “classy” looks, from her golden brown hair in bouncy curls, to her figure which she did not conceal with a bulky bullet-proof vest.
Tuason had earlier admitted that her friends had become scarce after her name was implicated in the pork scam, so they must have sat on the edge of their seats, waiting for the witness to cry under the senator’s cross-examination, and especially the withering interrogation of Senator Santiago.
Well, what a disappointment it must have been for the hoity-toity because Santiago was greatly impressed by the classy witness.
“You are a perfect witness, a competent witness, an intelligent witness,” Santiago told Tuason, who revealed that she personally handed over millions of pesos to Senator Jinggoy in 2008, when she worked as an agent to businesswoman and alleged pork scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles.
Tuason later told the Senate panel she also brought commissions in millions of pesos out of the PDAF of Senator Enrile through Reyes.
Actually, Tuason did not reveal more than what Benhur Luy had already stated in his affidavit. There was nothing earth-shaking about her testimony, but I agree with Senator Santiago that Tuason’s testimony is crucial, because she was literally in the middle of pork barrel transactions in 2008.
In effect, the classy witness bolstered the testimonies of whistle blowers Benhur Luy, et al.
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