Rewarding whistleblowers

In one of the daily press releases churned out by the office of Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero, the neophyte Senator supposedly vowed to focus his efforts in getting his colleagues in Congress to pass two measures aimed to curb corruption in government. Pending for approval on third and final reading at the Senate, Escudero disclosed, are the proposed measures to empower both houses of Congress to craft its own witness protection program (WPP) and set up a reward system for whistleblowers on grafters in government.

The proposed Whistleblowers Act sets up a reward scheme for those who will step forward and expose graft and corruption in government. As proposed by this bill, the highest reward is P5 million if the testimony of the whistleblower involves a public official with a salary grade of 33. The reward ranges from P50,000 to P5 million, depending on the salary range of the official involved, which is from salary grade one to 33.

Aside from the reward, Chiz explained, his bill entitles the whistleblower to other benefits such as protection and security to assist them return to their normal lives, move forward, and start life anew. Under the same bill, the Office of the Ombudsman is mandated to institute a “Whistleblower’s Program” in order to carry out the intent of the law.

As far as I could remember, there was a previous “Whistleblower” bill filed during the previous Congress as an aftermath of the P204 million tax payment diversion case against a number of Rizal branch executives of the LandBank of the Philippines. This tax payment scam was exposed in August 2002 by LBP supervisor Acsa Ramirez who blew the whistle against her colleagues at the state-owned bank. However, during the media presentation of the suspects in the case at the National Bureau of Investigation, Ramirez was mistakenly included among the suspects.

I was still covering Malacañang Palace when President Arroyo even had to formally apologize to Ramirez for that mistake.

I wonder what happened to that “Whistle-blower” bill that was first filed in the previous Congress. Obviously, nothing came out of it since Chiz filed a new one. Actually, it was Sen. Panfilo Lacson who first filed this bill in January 2008. This “Whistleblower” bill may likely suffer the same fate that befell the previous one.

The existing Witness Protection Law, meanwhile, empowers only the Department of Justice to implement this program that provides security and livelihood to state witnesses. The proposed amendment seeks to allow both chambers of Congress to establish their own, solely for witnesses or resource persons in congressional hearings.

This bill seeks to allow the Senate and the House to promulgate their own rules in implementing their respective Witness Protection, Security and Benefits Program for qualified witnesses. “These two measures will further deter the commission of graft and corruption in government and will reward those who risk everything to testify against thieves plying their trade in the corridors of power,” said Chiz who co-authored both bills.

As we have seen in some of these controversial “inquiries in aid of legislation,” a number of these resource persons would spill out their guts to denounce officials in government. We have seen an array of them and the most recent ones include the likes of former Philippine Forest Corp. (PFC) president Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada Jr., businessman Jose “Joey” de Venecia III, and, telecom consultant Dante Madriaga.

The three are currently under protection by Senate as witnesses in the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee investigation into the alleged “over-pricing” in the government’s $329-million national broadband network (NBN) project with China’s ZTE Corp. And what made them most important witnesses were their respective testimonies that implicated certain officials at the highest level of our government into the alleged anomalies that went into the NBN-ZTE deal. Even President Arroyo and her husband, First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo were linked also to the NBN-ZTE scandal.

After several days and long hours of public hearings and changes in the Senate leadership, the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee finally wrapped up last week its investigation into the NBN-ZTE scam. Now chaired by Sen.Richard “Dick” Gordon, the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee concluded and closed the case a week after the Ombudsman released its own findings and recommendations on the NBN-ZTE deal.

The Ombudsman found probable cause to file graft charges against former National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) director-general Romulo Neri and former Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Benjamin Abalos. The Ombudsman panel that looked into the case cited that President Arroyo is covered by Executive immunity while they cleared the First Gentleman of any involvement. And so were Joey De Venecia and Lozada, too.

A lawyer by profession, Dick naturally expressed dismay at the Ombudsman ruling that extensively made use of, and relied upon the Senate investigation on this particular case. Although a former Arroyo Cabinet official, the maverick Dick did not mince words in pointing out the President and the First Gentleman should, at the very least, be made to explain their sides on the allegations against their involvement in the botched deal.

Tying up the loose ends of the Senate investigation into the NBN-ZTE deal, Dick declared at the end of the hearing last week his intentions to include also Lozada, Joey de Venecia, Jr. and even the latter’s namesake father, former Speaker Jose de Venecia as additional respondents in this case. Gordon clearly stated Joey de Venecia, as a losing bidder in this project, could not invoke his being a whistleblower and claim as the “victim” in this case. As far as Dick is concerned, Lozada cannot escape liability for having packaged the over-priced NBN-ZTE contract.

One cannot be a whistleblower when your nose is not clean. That should be included in this proposed “Whistleblower” bill. The same principle actually applies under existing WPP Law. As provided for in this law, only the “least guilty” could qualify to turn state witness and criminal charges are dropped.

With the passion of the previous Senate hearings on this case already out, Dick untied the “Gordian knot” that finally showed the true victims of the greed and corruption on this NBN-ZTE deal — we, the Filipino people. Sadly, we have the wrong sense of justice in this country.