No video footage of Tuason in Senate basement parking
Ruby Tuason. Photo by INQUIRER.net
This one is a miss.
As senators quibbled over whether it was apt to call whistle-blower Ruby Tuason’s testimony a three-point shot, the Senate security men on Friday said they had no video footage of Tuason getting into the building through the basement parking.
Senate Sergeant at Arms Jose Balajadia said the closed-circuit television camera footages of the basement parking in 2008—the year Tuason claimed she entered the building to deliver kickbacks from bogus government projects to Sen. Jinggoy Estrada—had long been erased.
Balajadia said VHS tape was used from 2002 to 2010 and footages were stored for only 30 days. If there were no requests for copies, the tapes were recycled, he said.
It was only in 2011 that the Senate security shifted to DVD, Balajadia said.
“So where are we going to get the tape? How else can I produce the footage? There’s no more VHS tape,’’ Balajadia said in an interview on the phone.
Seeking to overturn Tuason’s testimony to the Senate blue ribbon committee on Thursday, Estrada demanded the release of the 2008 tapes so that the senators could see if any footage would show the socialite going into the building through the basement parking.
But with the tapes gone, it’s now Tuason’s word against Estrada’s.
Testifying in the blue ribbon committee’s investigation of the P10-billion pork barrel scam on Thursday, Tuason said that whenever she carried bags stuffed with money for Estrada, she got off at the basement parking to avoid security checks at the main lobby.
The basement parking entrance is near the elevator that services the senators’ offices on the fifth and sixth floors.
Tuason, 62, a former social secretary to Estrada’s father, ousted President Joseph Estrada, who is now mayor of Manila, said she delivered money to Estrada in his sixth floor office at least twice in 2008, but could not recall the specific dates.
She said she was met by two of Estrada’s aides at the basement parking, and escorted to the elevator and up to the senator’s office on the top floor.
Estrada confirmed asking his staff to escort Tuason from the basement parking, but said it was because she usually carried two trays of sandwiches. He strongly denied receiving cash from Tuason, formerly a close friend of his family.
Estrada, however, demanded that the Senate sergeant at arms release security-camera footage that might show Tuason discreetly entering the building.
“I just want to clear the coast. I’m not guilty. She did not deliver any money to me, in my residence, most specifically in the Senate,” Estrada said on the floor on Monday. “I have nothing to hide.”
Balajadia said he informed Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, chair of the blue ribbon committee, about the unavailability of the tapes after Thursday’s hearing.
He quoted the senator as saying that nothing could be done about it.
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