Forgetting Napoles

A SLEEP AND A FORGETTING Napoles at the Senate inquiry

Janet Lim Napoles, the alleged mastermind of that pork barrel scam, is now singing the 12 Days of Christmas after a bit of a victory (for now at least) at that Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing over the controversial Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) scam.

And by being frugal about her responses, she somehow stole the show, and (Lo!) was quite unconscious about it. She seemed surprised at some of the questions thrown at her, caught smiling with her PAO lawyers and, at various instances in the inquiry, not listening to Senate Blue Ribbon Committee Chair Teofisto Guingona Jr. 

“Thar she blows,” to paraphrase Sen. Miriam Santiago’s seemingly sarcastic greeting (There you are), who was quite surprised even then at the temerity of Napoles’ amassed wealth secured supposedly at will in so short a time and in so short a memory. But Napoles was both a sight and a slight to those who witnessed her at the Senate inquiry. It was as if she has mastered us all along.

Like what we felt then when the music died, those who anticipated the dynamic portion of the inquiry somehow went home empty-handed, as Napoles greeted them with her unusual but obliviously expected matter-of-fact alliteration of nondescripts. Although what she really said was nothing short of gibberish, “Hindi ko po alam”, “Hindi po totoo”, “Nagtataka nga ako…”, back and forth like a backmasking episode, despite the fact that most Senators probably knew what would transpire in the inquiry, like Jinggoy did when asked about his perception of Napoles going Senate-bound that the latter simply will keep her mouth shut. They still went on with it, simply wanting to hear, like the rest of us, the voice of Janet Lim Napoles and the story behind her pugad baboy.

Yet, we did listen to Napoles for more than 5 hours. That’s already a Wimbledon classic if you consider the stretch. But what she gave us stretches our imagination even further. The thought of her not knowing a lot about pork, her personnel, the paychecks, and even some of her businesses seemed like “suspension of disbelief” played out in front of national TV, and in the presence of that panel who curiously knew her between 2004 until some months ago when the shit hits the fan. It was absurd! I can’t recall exactly how many times I changed channels because I find it too terrible to watch. And my heart goes out to those senators who could only agree with her Santiago-induced and potentially debatable right against self-incrimination.

Let me run through some of the highlights in that hearing: Shredding of vouchers as of January 2013 at the Pacific Plaza Tower; Napoles giving kickbacks to lawmakers; Alleged bogus organizations such as the Social Development Program for Farmers having offices at Napoles’ property at Biñan, Laguna; Suna, Suñas, Luy (Napoles' former employees) among others in the hearing; Napoles bought a heavy duty shredder to get rid of those controversial documents; Atty. Richard Cambe (Sen. Revilla’s Chief Political Adviser) receiving money from Benhur Luy; Napoles has access to account numbers of some lawmakers, according to Luy, and using either Manager’s or Corporate checks; former Rep. Plaza, Ruby Tuazon, and Pauline Labayen among others mentioned by Luy having received kickbacks from him; 50% kickback released per transaction (so which means for a 74 million PDAF, there’s a 37 million kickback waiting on the wings?---that sounds like a lot); Department of Budget and Management (DBM) calling the shots on PDAF? Etc. etc. etc. And like a whirlwind romance, I can’t stop thinking about it.

I’m glad though it somehow turned our attention away from that super typhoon. Turns out, Napoles was way too devastating than any typhoon or calamity combined. There was this foreboding of emptiness following Napoles’ appearance at that Senate hearing. For a short time though, amid the concerns of an impending typhoon, we were able to assess significantly our own sense of right and wrong by simply looking at her and hearing her unbelievable responses. That Napoles was lying, and the world is not a safe place anymore. Bingo! Why didn’t I think about that from the start? And like the rest of us, I wasn’t able to hear what I had in mind even before the inquiry.

I guess we will remember Napoles in the same way we remember Garci in 2004. For Napoles, however, spilling the beans is not a question of when, but how, considering that Santiago has already intimated the obvious. Hard to tell the truth when it is already apportioned to you in advance. And Napoles is as confused as we are right now, for even a few months ago, January to be exact, seemed like an eternity to her, and she said it so countless times--- she can’t recall a thing. I don’t know with you, but can you recall what were you doing on the night of January 14, 2013? Probably not. Maybe.

One of the issues that came out during this Napoles inquiry was the Fertilizer scam. Remember that chubby dude named Jocelyn? Remember him? White-haired, scared shitless in front of the Senate probe, and who, like Napoles, masterminded those fertilizer funds into a networking, seven-figure enterprise? Hell, yeah! Well, it came out in the inquiry. Surprised? And to think we almost buried him like those hapless earthquake victims in Bohol. I just hope that what happened in 2004 doesn’t necessarily find a strange affinity in 2013. If Bolante diverted that P728 million fertilizer fund to pamper the presidential campaign of GMA in 2004, I wonder ultimately the exact or the “pampering” figures to senators Jinggoy, Revilla, and Enrile was, along with the rest of the senators, of course. 

But what do I know, really. He Said, She Said? All I know is that she was bullshitting us from start to finish. Look, she has no idea about those documents with her signatures on it. What more can we ask for? Like the responses she’s about to unleash in that Executive Session she requested and with the same responses, I guess, towards a visibly nervous Bam Aquino. Like what the hell! If that’s not bullshitting, then what is it? Of the spoken word, you are the slave; of the unspoken word you are the master. I’ve been memorizing that tirade for more than a decade now, like Jules’ Ezekiel 25:17 in Pulp Fiction. And I don’t know what to believe anymore, not until she appeared before Sen. Miriam Santiago and enlightened us, you and I. For all we know, she got us all covered right from the get-go.

So we should remember this with the posterity of a stamp. Not unlike those past stamps (scams) that we choose to forget, unwittingly or otherwise. I mean, is anybody taking notes on Jun Lozada lately, and the comments he made a few weeks ago when he complained about the treatment given to Napoles when she surrendered to P-Noy about her scam? Guess not. And now that Yolanda is consuming us for the next 48 hours, what happened in that Senate hearing might be in for another shot at that mortality rate. Back to amnesia, baby! Least we forget though that there has been a few if not fewer litigations so far concerning those sins of the past, and as far as those scams were concerned, because like Napoles, we seem to forget so quickly and so fast.

The point is, we might treat Napoles again or her case as yet another prehistoric creature pondering its own extinction. And it’s almost inevitable. We certainly missed out something out of that Fertilizer scam, isn’t it? There has to be some reason why it was brought out again in broad daylight. Like January, now becoming the second week of November, time to forget about that witch and face the 3 French hens?  

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned..." We hated Napoles simply because she reminds us of the past, those nine years of grandiose smattering and superficial governance. Her supposed amnesia, perhaps our amnesia, too, is actually keeping her and keeping her dirty clothes fashionable until now. 

Thanks to that Martial Law reference, Senator Santiago. But that’s just the way it is with our culture. If you were in her shoes, you would probably do the same thing, you would categorically deny everything about what Benhur Luy and company were saying in their affidavits, and you would even reiterate her mantra just the same, against incrimination or implication or what have you. Just like old times. Same old song. Like 12 Days of Christmas. People will mock, insult, or even poke fun about your crime and all that, but what the heck, this issue will die a natural death, and they will eventually forget like I don’t know. 

photo: stream.aljazeera.com