PODCAST: Gov’t slow to act on Napoles scam – Baligod

MANILA, Philippines – More than a year after he and pork barrel state witness Benhur Luy severed their partnership, lawyer Levito Baligod has kept a low profile, choosing to return to private practice.

Baligod was Luy’s former lawyer in the serious illegal detention case filed against Janet Napoles, the businesswoman who rocked the entire nation over a multi-billion-peso scam. That scandal involved the misuse of lawmakers’ Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), more commonly known as pork barrel.

Luy was initially hesitant to participate in exposing the abuse and misuse by senators of their PDAF, well aware that he could put himself in trouble. But without Napoles’ knowledge, Luy began making a profit on his own. Napoles would later discover the betrayal.

At first, when Baligod took on the serious illegal detention case, he was unaware of the bigger pork barrel scam. When he slowly found out about it, he decided to make it a national issue.

It was an issue that led to the detention of 3 senators – Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr, Jinggoy Estrada, and Juan Ponce Enrile. The 91-year-old Enrile is now out on bail.

Baligod and Luy would eventually part ways, a situation that, Baligod says, is mutually beneficial. Luy had his own agenda and Baligod says he was uncomfortable being a part of it.

In this podcast interview, Baligod talks about his future actions on the PDAF misuse and about how other people also took advantage of lawmakers’ pork barrel. He says Napoles is just a part of the entire scam. Others operated in the House of Representatives, and like Napoles, they stole public funds in collusion with lawmakers.

Let’s listen to the podcast. – Rappler.com