Palace comes to Drilon's defense

MANILA - A Palace spokesman on Wednesday came to the defense of Senate President Franklin Drilon after pictures of him with businesswoman and alleged pork scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles were shown on TV and circulated on the Internet. Speaking to Palace reporters, Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda confirmed that Atty. Lorna Kapunan, lawyer of Mrs. Napoles, told President Aquino, Executive Secretary Jojo Ochoa and DILG Secretary Mar Roxas that Senate President Drilon knew Napoles. He said Drilon later volunteered the information and told the President. On the other hand, Lacierda pointed out that Drilon did not allocate any of his pork barrel funds to NGOs linked to Napoles as revealed by a Commission on Audit probe. "It's a question of relevance. The relevant thing is COA made a special audit and there were no indications based on special audit of COA that any special transactions were being done," he said. "[The pictures] should not be the basis for judgment. It should be whether taxpayers' money were diverted to the NGOs of Napoles. That should apply to all, regardless of poltiical affiliation," he added. Lacierda said the public should draw their own conclusions on whether or not some people are trying to politicize the incident. "I think there is an attempt to make Senator Drilon guilty by photography. The point is it's not so much the pictures that should be the basis for judgment. The basis for evaluation of wrongdoing should be acts undertaken involving taxpayers' money," he said. ANC, September 11, 2013