Marcos denies endorsing gov’t firm to implement ‘pork’ projects

Senator Ferdinand “Bong-bong” Marcos Jr. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong’’ Marcos Jr. on Monday disowned his alleged endorsement of a government corporation as the implementor of livelihood projects using P100 million of his pork barrel allocation in 2012.

The denial came after audit team leader Magno Oasan confirmed the authenticity of Marcos’ signature in his endorsement letter to the National Livelihood Development Corp. (NLDC) in March 2012.

In that endorsement letter, Marcos also purportedly designated four nongovernment organizations as conduits in the implementation of the projects and designated his chief of staff Ramon Cardenas to sign documents.

The NGOs were Ginintuang Alay sa Magsasaka Foundation Inc. (P5 million); Agricultura para sa Magbubukid Foundation Inc. (P25 million); Kaupdanan para sa Mangunguma Foundation Inc. (P25 million) and Agri and Economic Program for Farmers Foundation Inc. (P45 million).

In a statement, Marcos said he had written back Oasan to say that his signature was “not mine’’ and that he “never authorized’’ Cardenas or any person to deal with the NLDC.

Marcos said his staff, whom he instructed to investigate the matter, found out that his signature in the NLDC endorsement letter was falsified; the endorsement letter does not appear in the “docket system’’ of the senator’s office; the signatures of Cardenas in the memorandums of agreement with the four NGOs were falsified; and that the MOAs were of dubious origin, among others.

The senator said the findings were transmitted to the Commission on Audit “in the hope that this could aid’’ in its audit.

“When this scandal broke out, I purposely kept quiet – even when my name was constantly being dragged into this controversy,’’ he said in the statement. “Instead, I instructed my office to conduct an investigation because I wanted to be very sure about what I would say since I didn’t want to misinform nor mislead the public.’’

Meanwhile, Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, chair of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee inquiring into the pork barrel scam, formally invited Justice Secretary Leila de Lima and the whistle-blowers to its hearing on Thursday.