Graft probers start with low-hanging fruit

A mega task force formed to track down official corruption and jail culprits has started on a more sober note. The Department of Justice (DoJ) is taking leads from Commission on Audit (CoA) reports, plus highly publicized scandals that the media have reported extensively. The DoJ probably recalled recent history. The most successful anti-graft probe in contemporary times was done quietly by the CoA on the countryside development fund or CDF of lawmakers. It led to the jailing of three senators and the uncovering of a SARO-for-cash exchange that remains without precedent in legislative corruption. SARO refers to Special Allotment Release Orders.

Several officials of the executive departments and legislators were also snared in that audit, some of them sentenced to long jail terms. The name Janet Lim-Napoles, identified as the ringleader of the SARO-for-cash exchange, became synonymous with the corruption of the century.