Gov’t official involved in ‘pork scam’ to surface as witness – Baligod
Atty. Levito Baligod. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Even government officials were tapped to deliver kickbacks to their colleagues, a lawyer of pork barrel scam whistleblowers said Wednesday.
Lawyer Levito Baligod said one of them will soon serve as a witness in court.
“We’re still deciding if we will present them to the public or just wait for the litigation,” he told Inquirer Radio 990AM.
Baligod revealed that there are two witnesses that have yet to be named, one of them a government official, another a private individual.
“The witnesses are a combination… there’s a government official, there’s a private individual who personally delivered kickbacks. There are also government officials who personally delivered kickbacks to other legislators,” he said.
He refused to reveal if the person was a senator or a congressman.
Baligod gave the revelation as he enumerated his other clients, following Benhur Luy’s decision to drop him as legal counsel.
But the lawyer said there was no bad blood between him and Luy, the principal whistleblower in the pork barrel scam case.
Luy, in a letter, said he decided to “release” Baligod as his lawyer because he was busy with other “advocacies.” Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said Luy now has three to four lawyers from the Mendoza, Antero and Bautista Law Office.
Baligod said he had no problem with the decision since he is also tending to the cases of the other whistleblowers. And on a legal standpoint, he said it would not look good if he served as the lawyer of the whistleblowers who are also accused in court since he is the private complainant of all the cases they filed with the Office of the Ombudsman.
Nevertheless, he revealed that he has been included in the legal team of Dennis Cunanan, former deputy director general of the Technology Resource Center (TRC) and latest witness to the pork barrel scam.
On Thursday, he will accompany Cunanan as he gives his testimony in the Senate.
He said the former TRC official’s testimony is important since he links the head of implementing agencies to the “conspiracy.”
“Our theory of the case is that there was a conspiracy among three indispensable parties who we believe are the most guilty – Mrs. Janet Lim-Napoles, the legislator and the head of the implementing agencies,” Baligod said.
Baligod reiterated that the public should not speculate on his parting ways with Luy.
“I want to assure our countrymen that this will not affect the cases filed (with the courts in relation to the misuses of the Priority Development Assistance Fund). Instead, it will strengthen it because there are now more lawyers collaborating to assist the witnesses and ready them for litigation before the Sandiganbayan,” he said.
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