Ruby Tuason concludes testimony against Jinggoy
THE lawyers of state witness Ruby Tuason expressed confidence that her testimony at the Sandiganbayan was able to pin Senator Jinggoy Estrada in the pork barrel scam.
Tuason, Estrada’s alleged agent, concluded her testimony before the Sandiganbayan Fifth Division on Monday, as she was asked in cross-examination about the P40 million bank loan she borrowed to return her alleged kickbacks from the scam to the government.
In an interview after Estrada’s bail hearing Monday, Justice Undersecretary Jose Justiniano said Estrada’s defense chose to steer clear of grilling Tuason about her allegations that she delivered bags of money to Estrada’s Senate office, his house and at Zirkoh bar.
“Pinatunayan (ni Ruby Tuason) na personal siyang nagdadala ng komisyon kay Senator Estrada. Hindi naitumba yun… Na-discredit ba nila si Tuason? Hindi naman eh. Wala
naman silang natanong sa pagdadala ng pera,” Justiniano said.
He added that the court also brushed off for being immaterial the defense panel’s questions about the terms and conditions of Tuason’s loan used as payment to return her alleged loot.
“Nakita ng court na immaterial, irrelevant at impertinent ang mga questions na yan… Hindi ibig sabihin nagsinungaling ka sa isang bagay, nagsinungaling ka na sa lahat ng bagay,” he added.
Prosecutor Hazel Decena Valdez, who conducted the direct examination on Tuason, said Estrada’s defense did not tackle the alleged delivery of kickbacks because it would only implicate the senator.
“They didn’t want to touch on it kasi mas lalo silang mababaon. Kaya hindi na kami nagre-direct examination, hindi nila nasira eh,” Valdez said.
For his part, Estrada said his lawyers did not tackle it because Tuason’s allegations were all hearsay.
“Bakit namin kuwestiyunin? Panay hearsay lang. Siya lang ang nagsasabi na nagdala siya ng pera. The CCTV of the Senate will prove na nagdadala siya ng sandwiches hindi duffel bags ng pera,” Estrada said.
Estrada’s lawyer Sabino Acut Jr. grilled Tuason about supposedly lying in the facility agreement for the bank loan, for which Tuason signed the document with a check that she has paid all income tax returns and that she is not involved in any cases that would affect her financial condition.
Acut said Tuason had not paid her income tax return in 2014. He also said Tuason signed the document verifying she does not have pending cases even though she is a witness in Estrada’s plunder case.
Tuason confirmed that she signed it even though she had only let her lawyer go through the document and not peruse it herself.
Associate Justice Alexander Gesmundo stopped Acut from pursuing any more questions on Tuason’s bank loan because it is no longer relevant in the case.
Acut said Tuason’s admission only proved that she allegedly would be willing to lie through her teeth if only to obtain the loan.
“It means the witness has no qualms about telling the truth,” she said.
“The bank did not bother at all… She may be lying on those terms but that is not the issue of this case,” Gesmundo said.
The social secretary of Jinggoy’s father former President Joseph Estrada, Tuason had admitted before a Senate hearing that she delivered bagsful of kickbacks to the Senate office of Estrada, who is detained for plunder over the alleged diversion of his Priority Development Assistance Funds to ghost projects for financial gain through accused mastermind Janet Lim Napoles’ dummy foundations.
She also admitted before the Sandiganbayan that she served as Estrada’s agent in 2004 and in 2008 and that she had received 5-percent and 10-percent commissions respectively from Estrada’s pork barrel projects.
She had returned to government her kickbacks amounting to at least P40 million before she turned state witness and thus became immune from suit.
But her immunity does not save her from prosecution over the alleged Malampaya fund scam, where farmer storm victims were deprived of P900 million in assistance from energy funds after all these funds were purportedly pilfered through Napoles’ bogus foundations.
Tuason had applied for immunity while the Ombudsman is investigating her as part of the Department of Justice complaint over the Malampaya scam.
Napoles had tagged Tuason as showing her a list of government funds amounting to P25 billion, and recommending the P900 million Malampaya fund that would be coursed through the Department of Agrarian Reform to earn kickbacks.
