Congress’s stance on pork probe incomprehensible

The refusal of the House and the Senate to investigate the alleged misuse of their pork barrel is a clear admission (or, is “confession” a more appropriate term?) that they’re incapable of making an objective inquiry and findings. This being the case, what then should we make of their past inquiries? There can be no other possible conclusion—their findings and recommendations were colored by their personal prejudices or biases.

Senate President Franklin M. Drilon (FMD) and Speaker Sonny “Serbisyong Bayan” Belmonte (SB) both made the decision despite the filing of resolutions in their respective chambers calling for an inquiry into the alleged use of bogus non-government organizations as conduits of pork barrel. With that peremptory judgment, they ran roughshod over the committee system, a bedrock of the legislative process. They should have allowed the standing committees to which the resolutions were referred to make the decision. Unfortunately, they didn’t. But more than running roughshod over the committee system, they missed the opportunity to clean up the messy use of pork. Perhaps, their idea of clean-up is sweeping the issue under the rug.