MANILA, Philippines—A whistle-blower in the pork barrel scam allegedly masterminded by Janet Lim-Napoles told the court Monday that she was asked to forge the signature of Benhur Luy to transfer money from Luy’s account to the account of Napoles.
In her testimony before Branch 150 of the Regional Trial Court of Makati City, Mary Arlene Baltazar, a former employee of the JLN Corporation, said a certain Mia Alvarez approached her while she was in her workplace and asked her to copy the signature of Luy for a fund transfer transaction with Metrobank.
When she refused, Alvarez allegedly then went to the room of one Evelyn de Leon which is around five to seven steps from Baltazar’s cubicle.
“Lumabas na sya, bumalik sya doon sa work place at pinakita niya sa’kin na yung fund transfer form napirmahan na ni Evelyn de Leon and finax na niya [to Metrobank],” Baltazar said.
(She went back to the work place and showed me the fund transfer form signed by Evelyn de Leon and she faxed this to Metrobank.)
Asked if there indeed had been a transfer of funds, Baltazar said the bank works on a request once it is faxed.
This, Baltazar said, was a day after an incident on December 19, 2012 when Napoles gathered them into a room to berate Luy for his alleged secret deals.
Baltazar said there was a time when Napoles read the messages from a certain “Flor” on Luy’s cell phone.
“Dun niya nakita na may transaksyon si Flor and Benhur na katulad nung transaksyon ni Janet Lim Napoles,” Baltazar said, referring to PDAF project transactions.
(Napoles discovered Flor and Benhur were having transactions similar to her operations.)
Napoles allegedly cursed Luy, calling him a traitor.
Baltazar added that Napoles also saw the name of a certain Maya Santos in the text messages.
Santos turns out to be a project coordinator who frequented the JLN Corporation office.
After Napoles left the room, Reynald Lim and his body guard arrived and seized Luy.
Baltazar said she later found out that Luy was brought to room 2501 which was tightly guarded.
According to her, she saw Luy inside room 2501 before she went home at around 8 p.m. This was the last time Baltazar saw him.
Baltazar said Luy’s mother, Gertrudes, started to call her four to five times between 9 a.m. to 12 noon the next day to inquire about her son.
“Nasaan na si Benhur? Kailangan ko s’yang makausap. Sabihin niyo naman baka merong nangyayari sa kanya,” Baltazar recalled Luy’s mother as saying.
(Where’s Benhur? I need to talk to him. Tell me if something happened to him.)
After she last saw Luy on December 19, the next thing she heard about him was when Napoles came to their cubicle and said “pa-siyam na ni Benhur.”
The defense panel then asked the witness if she, indeed, didn’t hear anything from Luy after December 19. Baltazar said yes.
Napoles, 49, is currently detained at Fort Santo Domingo in Sta. Rosa, Laguna facing serious illegal detention charges by the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Baltazar started working for JLN Corporation in 2006.
The court is hearing the bail petition of Napoles.