Napoles ex-employee tell Senate: We formed foundations for ‘pork’ funds

Merlina Suñas, along with other whistleblowers, arrives at the Office of the Ombudsman in Quezon City in this September 19 file photo. RICHARD A. REYES/Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines—A former employee of Janet Lim-Napoles, the alleged mastermind  in the P10 billion pork barrel scam,  was the   first to take  the witness  stand  Thursday  and narrated  how they formed different foundations  where the legislators funds were funnelled.

Merlina Suñas, who worked for Napoles for about 13 years since 2000, told the committee she was among those who helped  organized  the foundations.

“Kasama  ko po lahat ng employees ng  JLN (Napoles’ corporation), tulong-tulong po kami sa pagbuo ng mga foundations para magamit sa pag-transact , pagkuha ng pondo sa different t agencies ng gobyerno (Together with all employees of JLN, we worked together to form the foundations that would be used to transact, get funds from different government agencies),” Suñas told the  Senate  blue ribbon committee.

In fact, Suñas said,  her cousin, Nemencio Pablo Jr., was even named president of one of Napoles’ foundations.

Suñas said she  later apologized to her cousin for using  his name without  his knowledge.

She said they prepared the letter request, memorandum of agreement and other  documents   needed to  transact with  government agencies.

When asked  if she knew  about  the sharing scheme of the  funds allegedly sourced from  legislators’  priority development assistance  fund (PDAF) or  pork barrel funds,  Suñas initially said she was not familiar about it.

But when asked  again by Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano,  the witness  said   she knew about the  scheme but   did not know exactly where the money went.

Suñas was among the six whistle-blowers, including Benhur Luy,   who were present at the hearing.

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