Senate President Franklin Drilon on Tuesday accused unnamed critics of trying to implicate him in the multi-billion peso pork barrel fund scam by disseminating pictures of him and his wife together with businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles and her husband.
“There is a clear effort to implicate me and make me appear guilty by association. I reject such implications,” Drilon said in a press briefing on Tuesday at the Senate.
Drilon was referring to the pictures that surfaced in various social media networks and shown by television networks showing him and his wife, Mila, with Janet and husband Jimmy, perceived to be at the Heritage Park and believed to be the Napoleses favorite venue whenever they host big parties or events.
It was also at Heritage Park where President Benigno Aquino III’s presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda supposedly fetched Napoles when she surrendered last Aug. 28.
Drilon, who was the first of the lawmakers to call for the abolition of the pork barrel, explained that the picture was taken at a dinner event where the other guests were Chinese seminarians who were on a study tour in the Philippines.
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| This photo of Senate President Franklin Drilon, together with his wife, Mila, with Janet Lim Napoles and husband Jimmy surfaced on social media Monday evening after a news report revealed that he has attended at least one party thrown by the alleged pork scam mastermind. |
He said there were also orphans and street children who were beneficiaries of a church-led feeding program present at the venue. His wife, Drilon said, is an active church worker.
“Kaming mga pulitiko, maraming nagpapapicture sa amin, di naman namin alam, din a namin tinatanong uy sino ka ba? (As politicians, there are many people taking pictures with us. We don’t know them and we don’t ask them who are you?),” Drilon said.
“And I did not know the business of Ms. Napolees when all of these were happening,” the Senate leader said.
Drilon said he won’t be surprised if other pictures of him and other lawmakers with Napoles also surface because he frequently sees Napoles in other social gatherings.
“Pwedeng may lalabas pang ibang picture kasi nakikita ko rin sya sa ibang social gatherings (There can be other pictures because I’ve seen her in social gatherings),” the senator added.
What is important, he said, is that none of his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) went to any of the non-government organizations (NGO) owned by Napoles.
“Let me make it very clear, that none of my PDAF allocation was ever assigned or given to any project of Ms. Napoles or any of her NGOs,” he said.
“You can go through the DBM (Department of Budget and Management) and COA (Commission on Audit) website (to check my PDAF). And you can go through it with a fine comb and you will not see a single peso of my PDAF being assigned to any of Napoles’ NGOs,” Drilon reiterated.
As far as he is concerned, Drilon said he only approved the release of substantial amounts of his PDAF to the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FFCCCI) and to indigent patients in the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI), Philippine General Hospital, Philippine Heart Center, Philippine Children’s Medical Center and other government hospitals.
“The NGO that I worked with is the FFCCCI where I have assigned a good, substantial portion of my PDAF to build classrooms all over the country at half the cost of government contractors. And this is to fill in the temporary gap at that time of the classroom shortage,” he explained.
”A substantial portion of my PDAF also goes to indigent patients in NKTI, PGH, Heart Center, Childrens’ Hospital and other government hospitals where indigent patients would avail of this PDAF—none to the Napoles NGOs,” Drilon stressed.
Asked who introduced him to Napoles, Drilon replied: “Di ko na maalala sino nagpakilala sa amin, because that was some time ago.”
But Drilon balked when he was questioned whether he is willing to be also investigated in the current pork barrel fund probe by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee or the government.
“Investigated for what? Because my picture kami? Ano iimbestigahin dun? But you know, sige, imbestigahin niyo ako, but the question is ano iimbestigahin?” Drilon pointed out.
“But I see we need to face any investigation obviously, wala naman ako tinatago, but that kind of question mabigat na yun because you assume I have done something wrong. So you invesetigate because I am guilty by association di naman siguro. But that’s a matter I am willing to face,” he said.
However, Drilon said he refuses to speculate who is behind the circulation of the photos.
“I have information but it is all, at this point, conclusions which I do not want to go into. But it’s certainly very clear, ito’y pinadala sa tv networks kagabi, sabi sa akin,” he said.
But netizens didn’t buy Drilon’s explanation, and have expressed doubt over Drilon’s statements that he only knows Napoles ‘socially’.
