FAILED TEST: Senate President Franklin Drilon and his cohorts will be back at the “scene of the crime” when the Blue Ribbon committee resumes on Thursday poking into the porky L’Affaire Napoles and when the chamber returns Nov. 18 from its recess.

For context, let me take you 10 years back. Then Senate President Drilon and his majority of salivating senators had the chance to slay the Pork Barrel dragon but did not do what duty and decency dictated.

Now they are confronted with the same question at the same place where they first took the test and failed it. Can they rise above the greed this time around?

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BILLIONS STOLEN: In a speech last Oct. 24 before the Philippine Constitution Association on the pork barrel question, former Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson related what happened in the Drilon Senate then:

“On March 11, 2003, I delivered a scathing privilege speech, unequivocally calling for the abolition of the pork barrel system, be it named the Countrywide Development Fund (CDF), Congressional Initiative Allocation (CIA), Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), or whatever name Malacañang and the Congress may invent to justify its inclusion in the national budget.

“I referred to the system as a virus of corruption that must die. I detailed how billions of pesos went to the deep pockets of corruption of some legislators who identified the projects, certain officials of the implementing agencies under the Executive branch, and the usual proponents from the local government sector.

“That speech was an appeal to the conscience of my colleagues, or, at the very least, their sense of shame. The timing I thought could not have been more perfect. The budget deficit in the preceding year, 2002, was at an alarming P213 billion and counting.”

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ABRUPT ADJOURNMENT: Lacson recalled: “I can still remember how I had braced myself for an extended interpellation from my colleagues. I was eagerly ready….

“(But) as soon as I finished my speech with the usual, ‘Thank you, Mr. Senate President. I now yield the floor for interpellations….’ what I heard was the banging of the gavel by the presiding officer, then SP Franklin Drilon, followed by a curt ‘Session suspended…’.

“I thought I would have a momentary breathing spell to review my notes as I returned to my seat.

“Not a minute longer, the Senate President declared the resumption of session. As I walked toward the podium, I heard another banging of the gavel followed by a loud, ‘Session adjourned!’.

“That was it! No interpellations or debate, no referral to any Senate committee, and therefore, no resolution to the arguments that I posited in that privilege speech.”

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REVENGE MODE: Noting the current ferment, Lacson – who did not collect a centavo of his annual P200-million pork allocation from 2002 till his second term ended in 2013 last June – said:

“The Filipino people are on a revenge mode — against a systematic pillage of the nation’s treasury by those who, without fear and compunction, we trusted to check and balance each other in the use and disposition of taxes.

“They are outraged to discover how they have been had for as long as they can remember.

“The pork barrel system is ugly, more often than not, cruel, sometimes merciless towards the people we all swore to serve and protect.”

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LOCKED OUT: Lacson talked of learning first-hand how lawmakers who could stomach it amassed millions during the budgeting process all the way to the haggling in the bicameral committee conferences. He recalled:

“In 2006 there was held an all-senators caucus to decide what to do with more than P38 billion in Special Purpose Funds (SPF), the disbursement of which was under the control of then PGMA. I went along with the suggestion to slash a substantial portion of that Lump Sum.

“But that was only the good part. The ugly side, and I loudly objected to it, was to — hold your breath — re-allocate the deducted amount to the pork barrel of legislators, P300 million each in addition to the regular P200-million pork barrel of senators.

“Without my knowledge, they held a second caucus on the same subject.”

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GOD’S WAYS: “Indeed, God works in many mysterious ways,” he continued:

“One Thursday of the same year, in our small eating club composed of a few opposition politicians, businessmen, political analysts and advertising people, then congressman Alan Peter Cayetano requested through former political adviser to President Erap, Lito Banayo, that I allocate P50 million to Taguig out of my supposed additional P200 million from the realigned special purpose funds. Apparently, congressman Alan got the information from his sister, Sen. Pia Cayetano.

“Mula sa hindi napagkasunduang P300 million na dagdag pork bawat senador dahil sa pagtutol ko, nahiya sila ng one-third kaya ginawang P200 million na lang sa pangalawang caucus na hindi naman ako pinasabihan.

“The following Monday, I lost no time to confront the finance committee chairman and the Senate president and threatened to go to town on that issue and not stop interpellating on the floor all the way to the period of amendments until the P4.6 billion in additional PDAF of 23 senators disappears from the proposed GAA.

“To make the long story short, the P200-million additional pork for each of the 23 senators did not materialize. Needless to say, I was the kill-joy, corny kontrabida.”

All of that happened during the bad old days of the Arroyo administration. Will Drilon et al., now under President Aquino’s “tuwid na daan,” act differently? That is the question.

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