Jo Christine & James Napoles Accomplices in Pork Barrel Fraud?
At last, the long arm of the law is finally waving its weak limbs about. I thought for a moment it was ailing with paralysis.
Allegedly James Christoper “Butsoy” Napoles and Jo Christine “Neneng” Napoles have been implicated with the Pork Barrel scandal right up to their greedy little necks and they are about to be issued warrants of arrest and to answer for their part in the wanton thievery and plunder of the monies belonging to the Philippine nation.
It is alleged that Neneng and Butsoy were willing participants in siphoning off aid funds meant for the cash-strapped farmers of Malampaya, a farming community which was a victim of one typhoon disaster after another and another….
The Government did put aside and eventually approved and released the monies amounting to P900,000,000. Not a cent went to the deserving and destitute farmers. Instead, the cash was shared between fake Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and corrupt Government officials and workers via Janet Lim-Napoles machinations through the JLN (hmm what do the initials stand for;)) group of fake companies. Check out the JLN website. Maybe the company should be renamed JGMMS – ‘Just Give Me Money, Suckers’ 🙂
Neneng and Butsoy were not only busy falsifying documents and forging signatures on cheques, they were also officially employed as Vice President for admin and finance and Vice President for operations at JLN office at Discovery Centre in Pasig City.
Neneng and Butsoy should be charged with treason, plunder, forgery, etc for their role of being accessories, collaborators and co-conspirators to the crime and should be arrested and jailed with immediate effect.
Hmm maybe we world-weary and fed up Filipinos will see these two elevated to high office as seems to happens to those who can be ‘creative’ with accounting of public allocated funds ;).
ARE NENENG AND BUTSOY THE FUTURE SENATORS OF THE PHILIPPINES? WE WILL NOT BE TOO SURPRISED IF THEY DO END UP RUNNING THE GOVERNMENT!
How the mighty have fallen. The Princess is allegedly a common money laundering accessory.
It is also alleged that her husband plundered millions of euros in charitable donations to a company that he runs.
It is similar to Philippine PDAF (pork barrel scandal)!
It makes one wonder if the Filipinos inherited this corruption gene from their former Spanish overlords. 😉 LOL
Anyway Cristina is now a prinsesa labandera; Princesa de Lavado de Dinero, a title that certainly would bring shame to her family, especially to her ailing father, King Juan Carlos of Spain.
Because of this shameful event, King Juan Carlos might have to abdicate in favour of his son, Felipe.
JPJhermes, on Patrol
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Spanish princess Infanta Cristina summoned over fraud
The Infanta Cristina is seen here at a Mass in Madrid in June 2013
A Spanish judge has summoned the youngest daughter of King Juan Carlos to appear in court over accusations of fraud and money-laundering.
The Infanta Cristina, 48, has been linked to the business affairs of her husband, Inaki Urdangarin, who is being investigated for alleged embezzlement.
The princess is now a formal suspect and should appear in court on 8 March.
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Analysis
Tom BurridgeBBC News, Madrid
Throughout this long-running, and very public scandal, Spain’s royal household has always tried to draw a line between direct members of the royal family and the scandal surrounding the king’s son-in-law, Cristina’s husband. That will now be a lot more difficult.
The princess did not have to appear last year in court because state lawyers appealed against the summons, and the regional court of Mallorca, which is managing the case, judged that the evidence linking Cristina to her husband’s business dealings was insufficient. However preventing her appearance for a second time could prove much harder.
The year has not started well for King Juan Carlos. An opinion poll on Sunday suggested that 62% of Spaniards would like to see him abdicate, and the following day his advanced age and ill-health showed as he struggled to make a speech at an annual military event.
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It is believed to be the first time a direct relative of the king will appear in court accused of wrongdoing.
Palma de Mallorca court judge Jose Castro ordered the princess to appear for questioning about her partnership with Mr Urdangarin in a firm called Aizoon.
Last year, properties belonging to her husband were impounded after allegations that Mr Urdangarin, the Duke of Palma, misused millions of euros in public funds given to a charitable foundation he ran.
The duke denied wrongdoing and was not charged with any crime.
One of the properties impounded is a large luxury house on the outskirts of Barcelona belonging to the duke and the princess, who currently lives in the Swiss city of Geneva.
The Infanta Cristina is the king’s middle child. She has an elder sister, Infanta Elena, and a younger brother, Crown Prince Felipe, the heir apparent.
‘Spaniards relieved’Judge Castro issued the summons despite objections from the anti-corruption prosecutor in the Balearic Islands, Pedro Horrach, who said he saw no evidence linking the princess to her husband’s alleged wrongdoing, the Spanish newspaper El Pais reports.
When Judge Castro first tried to summon the princess last April, the bid was blocked by the provincial court in Palma de Mallorca.
Inaki Urdangarin is seen here attending a court hearing in 2012
On that occasion, she would have been questioned over the non-profit Noos Institute, which her husband had headed. The charitable foundation had received millions of euros in public funds, which were then allegedly embezzled.
The new court summons relates to Aizoon, a company which investigators suspect served as a front for laundering the embezzled funds.
The events are alleged to have happened between 2004 and 2006, when the duke stepped down as head of Noos.
Spanish journalist Miguel Anxo Murado told BBC World Service there was a sense of satisfaction among Spaniards at the way the case was being handled.
“Most people will tell you that they felt more relieved than shocked and this includes even people who are sympathetic to the royal family,” he said.
“And this is because we had come to the point at which the issue was no longer whether the princess was guilty of anything but actually whether justice is the same for everybody in Spain. And this will probably calm things down a little bit. Whether it will be sufficient for many people in this environment of economic crisis, well that remains to be seen.”
‘Maximum respect’Responding to Tuesday’s announcement, the royal household said it had “maximum respect for judicial decisions”.
King Juan Carlos (left) is seen here with Crown Prince Felipe and Queen Sofia on Monday
News that the princess is now a formal suspect comes amid a decline in popularity for the Spanish king, 76, whose image was dented by a luxury elephant-hunting trip he made to Africa in 2012.
On Monday, he presided over a military parade on crutches at Madrid’s royal palace, having recently undergone hip replacement surgery.
An opinion poll published on Sunday suggested that 62% of Spaniards wanted him to abdicate and fewer than half supported the monarchy in general.
However, the same Sigma Dos poll for El Mundo newspaper also indicated that a majority supported Crown Prince Felipe and believed he could restore the family’s prestige.
Juan Carlos became king in 1975, when he oversaw the country’s transition from dictatorship under the late Gen Francisco Franco to democracy.
It was such a lovely surprise and a proud moment for GlobalGranary.org to note that we were referenced in the recent Supreme Court ruling on Pork Barrel/PDAF scam.
We are pleased that some action has been initiated by the Supreme Court but we will continue to pursue further action that needed doing i.e. bringing the culprits to book and recovery of the monies by continually reminding people that this scam can’t just be filed and forgotten.
SUPREME COURT CASE ON PDAF – Scribd
www.scribd.com/doc/190317668/SUPREME-COURT-CASE-ON-PDAF
20 hours ago – Online: Something for Everyone, August 19, 2013. what- is-a-pork-barrel/#.UmnhFNavcw >(visited October 17, 2013).
Poverty is a widespread problem in the Philippines; 22 per cent of the population live way, way, way below under the breadline. And yet is not given the priority it needed.
The corrupt and greedy have got their noses in the pork trough while the poor have scraps to live on
This must change with the increasing revelations about the Pork Barrel PDAF scandal.
Money is there but not distributed fairly as we have learned from the Janet & Jeane Napoles scandal. We have also learned that they spend monies into non-priority projects like that of Luneta Flagpole costing several millions of pesos.
Until community leaders, senators, congressmen and the president of the Philippines think of the people first rather than themselves and their status, there is no way out from this worsening condition of indigence.
The film delivers what it meant to do in such a big way. It does not patronise poverty but rather shows a clear indictment of how living under the breadline is all about. There are no tears, no sadness but of stoicism, laughter and acceptance which made the film/situation more heartbreaking.
Noynoy Aquino is good at playing deaf and dumb with regards to the Pork Barrel.
Despite majority of the 97Million of Filipinos showing that they have had enough of the anomalous pork barrel funding and are livid at PNoy’s hesitance and continued prevarication, it seems PNoy continuous to play the game of cat and mouse. Yes, he said in an unprecedented televised statement that Pork Barrel/PDAF will be abolished! He forgot to mention that it would take effect in 2015.
President Aquino is not listening. We want the pork barrel stopped now, with immediate effect.
President Aquino may have a hidden agenda for not wanting to cease the funding from the Pork Barrel right now. Aquino himself get the King lion’s share. Ha!!!
Now we understand.
He has stopped listening to the public and therefore not an effective president anymore. His Daang Matuwid is so bako-baku, it is rougher that planet Mars’s surface.
His father’s martyrdom brought down the corrupt Marcos regime. He, therefore, owe it to the memory of his father to ensure that his father’s death was not in vain. But why the heck, his Government is so corrupt, it is potentially more corrupt than Marcos?!!!
Why not stand down and be the haciendero that is his birthright. Marry that young Kim Ledesma and together correct the anomalies and atrocities done to the tenants of the Villa Luisita. Perhaps that should have been his training ground. He should have started with “smaller” corruption. His becoming a president was way too soon; just too much a learning curve.
The major problem is that who will replace PNoy?
Perhaps PNoy is the lesser among evils after all?!!!. LOL
Moves to impeach President Aquino over his insistence on maintaining his pork barrel funds despite the public call for the removal of all discretionary items in the budget gained headway as a militant group said yesterday it would support and campaign for any initiative that will impeach Aquino for refusing to scrap the pork barrel of his office and the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) despite the public outrage generated by the P10-billion pork barrel scam authored by the detained Janet Lim-Napoles.
In a statement, Salvador France, vice chairman of Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya), said the filing of impeachment complaint against Aquino is necessary to frustrate the current leadership from pursuing pork barrel in the name of the ruling syndicate in and out of Malacañang.
An influential religious group, meanwhile, gave Aquino until the end of the month to totally abolish the pork barrel that would entail the giving up of his own discretionary funds worth nearly P500 billion “or face more protests.”
An official of the Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines (AMRSP) said Aquino should decide “the soonest” as Congress deliberates on the proposed P2.268 trillion national budget.
“While the Congress deliberates on the budget, we must remain vigilant because that’s where the hocus pocus is happening,” said Fr. Marlon Lacal, AMRSP executive secretary.
The so-called Makabayan bloc at the House of Representatives made up of left-leaning partylist legislators plans to file the impeachment case against Aquino as a result of his instransigence over keeping his own discretionary funds or the notorious pork barrel while only renaming similar funds for legislators called the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) by introducing new procedures in its use.
The uncovering of the P10-billion pork barrel scam engineered by Napoles triggered public outrage resulting in increasing protest actions seeking the unconditional removal of all discretionary funds in the yearly government budget.
The Palace said efforts to impeach Aquino will be an act of futility. Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office (PCDSPO) Secretary Ramon Carandang said the impeachment move against Aquino is an attempt at misdirection.
“The public has been given revelations about alleged corruption in the spending of PDAF. And, I think, there are certain parties who are trying to misdirect it, for one reason or another, towards the President,” Carandang said.
“We ask private groups and concerned citizens to lead the filing of impeachment complaint against President Aquino. The evidence is politically, morally and legally strong to send the President to the impeachment line. It is high time to end this political masquerade of the Aquino administration, which is out to keep their lion’s share of the pork barrel courtesy of this all ongoing political drama on scam queen Janet Lim-Napoles,” said France.
France said Aquino’s obsession to keep his own discretionary funds and the audit free Presidential Special Funds (PSF) which are sourced from shares of the national government from Malampaya is major reason why Aquino should be impeached since it runs contrary to public interest.
“The impeachment of President Aquino is a tall order of the day. Next time, people would go to the streets to demand his resignation if he refuses to give up his pork barrel and abolish this major form of bureaucrat capitalism,” the Pamalakaya official added.
In an interview, Carandang said the public has been given revelations about alleged corruption in the spending of PDAF and he thinks, there are certain parties who are trying to misdirect it, for one reason or another, toward the President.
Carandang maintained Aquino had not committed any wrongdoing involving the dispositions of public funds allotted for his office. He further averred that President Aquino has never been accused of misusing any funds from the public.
But France said Carandang is either heavily misinformed or totally blind about the responsibility and accountability of Aquino on the issue of pork barrel and public interest.
The group said the impeachment complaint if filed against Aquino would not be baseless, and as far as the people are concerned the impeachment case to be filed against Aquino would be sufficient both in form and in substance.
“That is Mr. Carandang, that is why he is called nothing but a second rate, copy cat apologist of Mr. Aquino,” said France.
France had previously slammed the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) for keeping away records on how Aquino and allies in the Senate and the House of Representatives spent their respective pork barrel from July 2010 up to last year.
The Pamalakaya leader learned that the Commission on Audit (CoA) had asked Budget Secretary Butch Abad the reports of the budget agency pertaining to pork barrel expenditures of Aquino and lawmakers since the former assumed the presidency in 2010.
The group insisted that Secretary Abad should open the books of the President Social Fund (PSF) also known as the presidential pork barrel and the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) awarded to allies of President Aquino in both chambers of Congress. The knee jerk reaction of DBM to the request of COA to provide the state audit department reports of pork barrel expenditures is unthinkable and mind-blowing.
“If President Aquino and Secretary Abad are not hiding anything from the outraged Filipino public, then by all means, the DBM should submit the reports on how Mr. Aquino and the Aquino-dominated Congress spent their pork barrel over the last 3 years,” said France.
France said the DBM had posted the allocations of pork barrel to President Aquino and lawmakers on its website, but the group said it is just a post, the entries are not scrutinized and lacks explanation and transparency.
“The Aquino-Abad tandem should submit the pork barrel republic report covering the period 2010-2012 and abolish the pork barrel of the Office of the President and scrap the PDAF of senators and congressmen. That is the collective interest of the suffering Filipino people,” France said.
“He (Aquino) should decide at the soonest possible time,” he said. “We are giving the President until the end of this month to finally decide (for the abolition of pork barrel),” AMRSP said.
The AMRSP official said that thei group’s campaign will continue until all forms of pork barrel are abolished, principally the PDAF which is lump sum and discretionary.
The National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP), which groups mainline Protestant and non Roman Catholic denominations, said the pork barrel is a part of the patronage politics that has plagued the electoral and political system in this country.
“…There is every reason to be upset that the President who was elected via an anti-corruption drive and a platform of ‘daang matuwid’ is not keen on removing this scourge,” the NCCP said.
“There is neither justification for the misuse of public funds by leaders while the majority of the people wallow in want and vulnerability to disasters, nor any moral ground in the failure of our leaders to be accountable,” it said in a statement.
Bishops of NCCP member Churches joined the Forward March action last Friday. The Catholics, meanwhile, were led by Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez. Bishop Oscar Cruz and Bishop Broderick Pabillo joined the interfaith gathering at the Rizal Park.
In his speech, Cruz said in Filipino, “Prayers are good but prayers alone are not enough. We, too, must act.”
Cruz warned Malacañang not to belittle the anti-pork protest. “Malacañang, do not tell us that the people who are not here are in favor of pork. People are not here for many reasons, perhaps they do not have money for transportation, …but it is impossible that Filipinos conform to what is happening in the country today.”
The Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) has called for “collective undertaking as Filipinos pursue truth and genuine accountability.” Thousands of students from Catholic universities and colleges flocked to Rizal Park.
In a strongly-worded pastoral statement issued Thursday, the bishops of the United Church of Christ of the Philippines (UCCP) said, “Sadly, our political leaders have proven themselves to be no better than Judas—their pronouncements of the needs of the poor have been merely a façade for their own thievery and abuse of power.” “Our nation has been betrayed by those stealing from the common purse and we unequivocally denounce that the poor, who continue to endure hunger, demolition, unemployment and underdevelopment, have been abused for such plunder,” the UCCP said.
In a statement, the Catholic-led National Task Force for Urban Conscientization (TFUC-AMRSP) echoed the cry of the urban poor: “Instead of using public money for the benefit of the poor, taxes are being squandered by politicians who seek office as a business enterprise. The pork barrel Scam is an outright disrespect to the many impoverished people of both the urban and rural parts of the country. This syndicated plunder of public funds worsens the situation of the poor by wiping away their hopes for a just society.”
The Task Force of the Orientation of Church People also called on the “religious, clergy, and lay people alike must further the call for a just society as our primary role as people of the Gospel.”
The Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP) said “indigenous rights and land reform remain hampered by controversies as the root cause of all unrest.”
Meanwhile, the Promotion of Church People’s Response deemed that the testimony of whistleblower Benhur Luy “clearly points to [President] Aquino as responsible for the whole controversy.”
“The knowledge of Christ as savior compels search for truth and to hold transgressors accountable. As long as the bureaucracy is haunted by the ills of corruption it will not deliver services that will benefit the people, most especially the poor,” Nardy Sabino, PCPR secretary general, said. “It is our unity Roman Catholics and Protestants, therefore to call action to pressure the immediate abolition of all Pork Barrel and allocation of funds to social services. The Aquino administration remains accountable to this controversy as long as it fails to act.”
Both the youth of Catholic and Protestant Churches also added their voices against the pork barrel system. The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines Episcopal Commission on Youth said “the country and our people are beset with various saddening and disturbing issues many of which are recurring issues from the defective system that has not found a better alternative yet.”
Tom BurridgeBBC News, Madrid
