Pork barrel cases validate Pres. Aquino’s anti-corruption campaign — Marcos

Alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles. Photo from Aquino’s official Facebook page.

MANILA – Sen. Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. on Thursday said President Benigno Aquino III can highlight the pork barrel scam cases in his upcoming state of the nation address (SONA) as validation of his administration’s serious campaign against corruption.

”It could be said that this validates that this administration is serious about anti-corruption. The President was elected for that campaign (straight path),” Marcos said in a weekly Kapihan sa Senado forum.

Marcos, however, clarified that he is not sure whether the President would include in his SONA the plunder and graft charges filed against three senators and other individuals, including the alleged mastermind Janet Lim Napoles of the P10-billion pork scam.

”I am also curious like you what the SONA will contain, what he will talk about, what he will stress on, what he will give importance and what he will exclude,” Marcos said.

Marcos said his colleagues – Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Ramon Revilla Jr. and Jinggoy Estrada and others charged over pork scam will remain accused individuals unless proven beyond reasonable doubt.

”I’m always a little bit nonplussed by the assumption that they are guilty. Let’s see what the trial will bring. We do not exactly know the elements of the case,” Marcos said.

”We will have to wait because the judgment is yet to be made as to what happened. We have heard many accusations, about one list, this list, other list. But that is not the trial. We have to wait until we see the evidence,” he added.

The three senators were accused of receiving kickbacks from the priority development assistance fund (PDAF) they released to the bogus non-government organizations (NGOs) of Napoles.

Revilla and Estrada are now detained at the Camp Crame while Enrile is still waiting for the Sandiganbayan to resolve his motions to dismiss the plunder and graft charges against him.