Analyst wants faster 'pork' trial before 2016

MANILA - Political analyst and UP College of Public Administration Professor Prospero de Vera said the Sandiganbayan should fast-track its hearings on cases related to the pork barrel scam. De Vera warned the start of the election season could divert the people's attention away from the PDAF trials. "It depends on how the Sandiganbayan will handle the whole proceedings. They should learn from Joseph Estrada's trial to fast-track the whole thing. I don't think the nation has the patience to endure a trial as long as Erap trial. This looks to be longer and the results have to be different," he said. He said there was frustration when the Estrada trial ended in a conviction only to see the former president pardoned immediately after by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. "The long stretch of the trial becomes irrelevant for many people because justice is not served," he said. UP College of Law professor Sandra Olaso-Coronel, meanwhile, said the duration of the trial depends on the strength of the evidence. "If the prosecutor will be able to establish strong evidence with just two witnesses then this petition for bail can be over before the year ends. The Ombudsman special prosecutors should be ready. If the Sandiganbayan can calendar this case once a week, then the special prosecutor should have a witness every week," she said. For her part, UP political science department professor Jean Encinas Franco said the public should remain engaged in the issue even if the trial drags on. "This is such a big case to be left to the government alone. It is only civil society who can move this forward," she said. ANC, June 24, 2014