Napoles, 5 senators, 23 solons, execs charged with plunder over pork scam

QUEZON CITY (PilipinasNews) — The Citizens Crime Watch (CCW) beat the Department of Justice to the draw by filing last Friday before the Office of the Ombudsman plunder charges against businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles, five senators and 23 other former and current government officials.

Napoles is the alleged “brains” behind the P10-billion pork barrel scam and the P900-million Malampaya fund scam.
The complaint arose from the alleged multi-billion-peso pork barrel scam through the means of corruption in the priority development assistance fund of the lawmakers using some of the bogus non-governmental organizations of Napoles.
The complainants led by Atty. Jose Malvar Villegas and Carlo Batalla of the CCW group filed the plunder charges against Napoles and former former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., former Senate President Protempore Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada and Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan.
Also charged were 23 former and current lawmakers, including members of the Cabinet namely: Bureau of Customs Commissioner Rozzano Rufino “Ruffy” Biazon, who is a former congressman of Muntinlupa City; and Technical and Educational Skills Development Authority Director General Joel Villanueva, who is a former party-list representative of Citizens Battle Against Corruption.
The senators mentioned in the complaint denied the charges filed against them, with many of them pointing out that their signatures were forged. In some cases, only the senators’ chiefs of staff decided on the senator’s Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and in endorsing them to certain non-government organizations, some of which appeared to be connected with Napoles.
The CWG said the lawmakers connived with Napoles to steal taxpayers’ money by allowing diversion of their allocations under the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) to a network of fake non-government organizations (NGOs) allegedly created by Napoles.
At press time on Monday, the Department of Justice under Justice Secretary Leila de Lima was still preparing the complaint that it will file within the day against Napoles and several lawmakers and those in complicity in the pork barrel scam. The National Bureau of Investigation and the lawyer of the whistleblowers were helping in the preparations of the complaint and the documents support it.
It was not known if those charged by the CWG will be the same persons to be charged by the DoJ, although reports indicated that they maybe the same.
Meanwhile, a third mass action for the abolition of the pork barrel of the Senators, Congressmen and President Aquino and members of his Cabinet has been set on October 25 at the Quirino Grandstand in Luneta.
Dubbed the “Jericho March,” the prayer rally will be the culmination of a 40-day prayer and fasting chain of activites that  started on Sept. 15 to seek God’s forgiveness for the sin of corruption, according to one of the groups organizing the rally.
 “The prayer rally is not exclusive to born-again Christians alone,” said Pastor Ed De Guzman of the Intercessors for the Philippines, adding that they will meet with officials of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines to seek their support for the inter-faith prayer protest.
Another group is the Jesus is Lord Movement, led by evangelist Eddie Villanueva, which will simultanesouly celebrate its 35th anniversary during the prayer rally at the Quirino Grandstand on Oct. 25.
The Christian groups said they will also join protest rally being readied at the Luneta on Sept. 21 in preparation for the Oct. 25 rally.
But Malacañang appeared unmoved by the growing clamor for the abolition of pork barrel system and downplayed threats of civil disobedience if Aquino does not give up his own pork barrel funds.
State witness Benhur Luy revealed during Thursday’s Senate probe on the pork barrel scam what he described as the many dirty deeds of the person he described as the lone mastermind of the country’s biggest scam yet.
Luy hesitated to say how many solons were involved in the pork barrel scam but he willingly recounted the measures Janet Napoles did to get away with obtaining funds from fake NGOs and splitting on them with senators.
His decision to keep silent on the number of senators involved, aside from naming names, was due to Justice Secretary Leila De Lima’s counsel as she said it could wait until charges are filed next Monday, Sept. 16.
“Madalas ko pong naririnig na may kausap sa telepono si Mrs. Napoles na mga pulitiko,” Luy told the Senate Blue Ribbon committee as he narrated how he was originally hired by Napoles to work for a drug testing company. PNA reported on Luy’s testimony before the Senate panel.
Eventually, after Napoles saw how he had the potential to liquidate reports, Luy said she immediately got him to work for JLN Corporation.
“Alalay ako ni Mrs. Napoles to the point na pati paghawak ng pera niya, pina-pahandle niya sa akin,” Luy said, explaining how it was Napoles herself who called politicians and implementing agencies while he did follow-ups.
Luy said about 40 to 50 percent of the total amount of a project allegedly landed in the hands of lawmakers who assigned part of the pork barrel to fake NGOs.
He even had the bank account number of all legislators, and/or their chiefs of staff to prove it.
“(Siya) ang nakikipag-usap sa lawmakers, kung ano napagkasunduan nila, let’s say 50 percent. Sometimes, mga lawmakers tatawag sa kanya,” he said.
“Bago nila makuha ang remaining 50 percent balance, mayroon silang endorsement letter, then memorandum of agreement and project proposal signed by the lawmaker or whoever assigned by the lawmaker,” Luy said.
He explained that while they would be the one to draft the endorsement letter, the lawmakers would sign it.
After submission of documents to IAs, Napoles will pay the lawmaker in cash or in check.
Napoles had so much money, Luy said, that it could no longer fit in a vault so she had to keep them in the most unlikely of places.
“Hindi kasya ang pera sa vault kaya minsan nilalagay namin ang pera niya sa bathtub, patong-patong pero nasa bag siya,” he said.
“Kapag kailangan nya pera, halimbawa P75 million, withdraw namin at dalhin sa opisina or sa bahay ni Madam,” he added.
“Karamihan ng personal accounts (ni Napoles), nasa Metrobank.”
Although he sensed that what he had gotten into wasn’t what he signed up for, Luy admitted that it was only until the company received a report from the Commission on Audit sometime in 2011 when he realized that something was indeed wrong.
“Nung napadalhan na kami ng sulat ng COA, saka lang namin na-realize na mali ang ginagawa namin,” Luy said. “(May) pagkakataon po na pinepeke ang pirma ng ibang lawmakers depende sa sasabihin ni Napoles.”
The hearing which lasted for nearly five hours ended when Blue Ribbon Committee chair, Sen. Teofisto Guingona III suspended the hearing pending further notice.
“We will sit down and assess until Monday (Sept 16) if Napoles will be asked to attend Senate probe,” Guingona said.
Guingona also that that he believed that there was reasonable basis to conclude that there was either malversation of public funds or plunder committed by some legislators.