‘Pork’ witness says she brought bagful of money to Estrada’s ex-aide
Janet Lim Napoles with Ruby Tuason. FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—A witness in the pork barrel funds scam told the Senate on Thursday that she brought a bag of money to a lawmaker’s agent, who is reportedly a former aide of ex-president Joseph Estrada.
Testifying at the Senate blue ribbon committee, Marina Sula, who handled Janet Lim-Napoles’ finances, said she was once asked by Napoles to bring the money to an “agent” of a lawmaker, whom she did not identify.
“Minsan naghatid po ako ng pera sa isang isang agent ng lawmaker. Naka-bag po iyong pera… Alam kong pera dahil sinabi ni Janet Napoles na, ‘Baby ihatid mo iyan, mag-ingat ka dahil pera iyan (One time I brought money to an agent of a lawmaker. The money was in the bag… I knew it was money because Janet Napoles said, ‘Baby bring that, and be careful because there’s money in there),” Sula said.
Sula said she did not know who was the lawmaker as she was only asked to bring the money to the house of Ruby Tuason.
Tuason was reported to be the former social secretary of now Manila Mayor Estrada, whose son Senator Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada was among those charged with plunder in connection with the pork barrel scam.
Sula said she didn’t know what was the money for.
Gertudes Luy, Napoles’ nanny, also testified and narrated to the committee how they carried millions of pesos from Napoles’ bedroom and bathtub.
“Sa bahay ako ang tumatanggap ng pera. Tapos dinadala ko dun sa kwarto kasi ako ang pinagkatiwalaan nila na mag-access na makapasok sa kwarto (In the house, I was the one receiving the money. Then I would bring it to the bedroom because I was entrusted with having access in the room),” Luy said.
She said the bags were so huge that they had to drag it to Napoles’ bedroom and sometimes to her bathtub.
“Pag sobrang madami na, nilalagay naming sa bathtub (When there were too many bags, we would put them in the bathtub),” Luy said.
She said the amount of money being brought to Napoles’ house varied from P30 million, P50 million to P75 million.
Luy’s son and principal whistleblower, Benhur Luy, had earlier testified to the committee that the millions of money were withdrawn from the banks before it was brought to Napoles’ office and then to her house.
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