Whistleblowers to snub Congress, truth body hearings

At least four whistleblowers to different government issues on Thursday said they will not testify in any investigation by Congress or the Truth Commission unless the Aquino administration expedites the passage of a law that would protect them. “I want to see first the whistleblower’s act being executed, then that’s the time that we will ask the would-be witnesses to come out," Sandra Cam, a jueteng whistleblower, told Senate reporters in an interview.
Cam faced a Senate investigation in 2005 where she accused the family of former President and now incumbent Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of receiving payoffs from jueteng operators. Cam, together with members of the Whistleblowers' Association, had earlier promised to help the Truth Commission — the panel created by President Benigno Aquino III to look into the corruption scandals in the Arroyo administration — if the Department of Justice (DOJ) would place them under the Witness Protection Program. Cam, who became emotional during the interview as she narrated the plight of whistleblowers, said they have yet to hear from the DOJ. “We wrote already two letters to President Benigno Aquino, we went to DOJ, but they said our application is still under evaluation." “(They) ask us to show evidence, bring witnesses... then at the end of the day, who’s the one holding the empty bag? It’s us," she added. “Think a thousand times" Cam said she has even asked a junior police officer who is set to testify against generals who receive payola from jueteng lords to “think a thousand times" before he finally decides to come out. “Tingnan mo itong nangyari sa aking kasamahan (Look at what happened to my comrades)," she said. Earlier this year, jueteng whistleblower Wilfredo "Boy" Mayor was gunned down by motorcycle-riding men in southern Metro Manila. Engr. Dante Madriaga, another whistleblower, likewise said he regrets coming out in the open because he hasn’t had a stable job and a permanent residence ever since he testified in the multi-million NBN-ZTE deal controversy. “Mahirap talaga (It's really difficult) in the absence of a whistleblowers’ act," he said. He also said that he is frustrated that nobody has been held responsible for all of their revelations. “Wala pang nakukulong. Palusot nila, nahinto naman raw yung project (Nobody has gone to jail because they said the project was aborted)," he said referring to the $329-million national broadband project that the Arroyo government entered — and later aborted — with China’s ZTE Corp. Arroyo appointee Jose Barredo, Jr., who faced the Senate on the P728-million fertilizer fund scam, said he is not keen on testifying before the Truth Commission since the panel’s head, former Chief Justice Reynato Puno, was an Arroyo appointee. “Kami against kay (Arroyo), sa previous administration, kaya doon, ang nilalalgay nila sa Truth Commission, yung mga tao pa rin nila (We are against Arroyo and her administration, then they placed an Arroyo ally in the Truth Commission)," he said. Former military intelligence agent Vidal Doble, who testified in a Senate hearing on the controversial “Hello Garci" tapes in June 2005, said he will wait for the instructions of Senator Panfilo Lacson, whom he said gave him “strength" to surface. Pending bills Earlier in the day, Senate blue ribbon committee head Teofisto Guingona III said they will look into the possibility of filing a necessary bill concerning whistleblowers. A check with the Senate Legislative Bills and Index Service Department showed that there are three bills filed in the 15th Congress regarding the protection and welfare of whistleblowers. Senator Manuel Villar Jr. filed Senate Bill 1063 and Senator Francis Escudero Senate Bill 2112, which both seek to provide protection, security, and benefits for whistleblowers. Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago’s Senate Bill 1883 seeks to establish a whistleblower bill of rights. The Senate is set to begin another series of hearings on the jueteng controversy on Tuesday. - KBK, GMANews.TV