‘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son and principal whistleblower, Benhur Luy, had earlier testified to the committee that the millions of money were withdrawn from the banks before  it was brought to Napoles’ office and  then to her house.

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