MANILA, Philippines - Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile cannot simply wash his hands of allegations linking him to the P10-billion pork barrel scam, according to the counsel of the witnesses against the alleged brains behind the scheme, Janet Lim Napoles.
"The action of the agent is deemed the action of the principal," said lawyer Levito Baligod in a recent interview with InterAksyon.com in Quezon City.
Recently, Enrile was quoted by the media as saying that he did not meet Napoles and that he did not use his priority development assistance fund (PDAF) to bankroll the projects of bogus non-government organizations allegedly operated by the controversial businesswoman.
But in its special audit of the PDAF covering 2007-2009, the Commission on Audit said that whie Enrile denied signing any documents related to the dubious NGOs, he also confirmed to COA that he had "authorized his chief of staff to sign on his behalf."
Lucila Jessica "Gigi" Reyes had been Enrile's longtime chief of staff until she resigned in January 2013 after she was dragged into the issue of Enrile's huge discretionary savings as president of the Senate.
A witness against Napoles, the 10th under Baligod's custody, told media that he and another employee of Napoles had delivered "millions of pesos" to Reyes between 2009 and 2011, while Reyes was Enrile's chief of staff.
The witness, who claimed to be the driver of Napoles' alleged courier, was quoted in a report as saying that the cash placed in a duffel bag was delivered to Reyes' residence at the exclusive La Vista Subivision in Quezon City.
According to Baligod, there were also documents relating to the bogus NGOs that Enrile himself signed.
"[M]ay mga documents na si Enrile mismo ang pumirma. Endrosement ng foundations, si Enrile mismo[There were documents that were signed by Enrile himself. The endorsement of the foundations, it was Enrile who signed them]," Baligod told InterAksyon.com in an interview on Tuesday.
"So now, sasabihin n’ya pineke ni Gigi Reyes 'yan. Eh ano ang mangyayari sa ibang legislative work n’ya na nandoon 'yong pirma n’ya? Pineke rin ba 'yon? [So now he will say that these were faked by Gigi Reyes? So what will happen now to Enrile's other legislative works that Reyes had signed? Were these also faked?]" added Baligod.
At a recent press conference, Enrile said the Department of Budget and Management - whose data were used by COA - mistakenly attributed to him monies drawn by offices of other senators who merely sought his endorsement as Senate chief.
“Aside from being culled from missing or incomplete records for reasons I have discussed, the pork barrel amounts attributed to me are distorted and misleading,” Enrile said.
Enrile said the COA report is misleading because some P325 million attributed to him as part of his Priority Development Assistance (PDAF) was actually projects of various legislators who requested for his endorsement.
Data from the Securities and Exchange Commission show that one of the allegedly bogus NGOs purportedly organized by Napoles received discretionary funds from Enrile.
In a January 2012 sworn statement submitted to the SEC, Merlina Sunas, the president and chairman, and Elizabeth Mendejar, the treasure of the People's Organization for Progress and Development, noted that they received a total of P24,250,000 from Enrile's countrywide development fund (CDF) in 2008.
Enrile's CDF, coursed through the Technology and Livelihood Resource Center, was used to provide people of Sta. Maria, Bulacan with agribusiness "pangkabuhayan kits," according to the NGO's sworn statement.
Sunas later on revealed that her NGO was fake and was just allegedly used by Napoles to siphon funds from the PDAF of lawmakers.
InterAksyon.com tried but failed to get the side of Reyes on the issue.
Lizette Nepomuceno, Enrile's media relations officer, told InteraAksyon.com Thursday afternoon that Reyes had already given a statement to the Inquirer and would no longer issue any other statement, at least for Thursday.
In her earlier statement to the Inquirer, Reyes said Enrile had indeed designated her and the senator's deputy chiefs of staff to sign documents on the lawmaker's behalf. But in the case of Enrile's PDAF, "Senator Enrile himself signs the endorsement to the DBM."
"I never signed any endorsement to the DBM to nominate any project whether under the senator’s PDAF, VILP (Various Infrastructure including Local Projects) or other sources," Reyes added.
