Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
Former Anti-Poverty Commission Undersecretary Catherine Mae “Maya” Santos served as the conduit between Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and detained businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles in routing millions of pesos in government funds to bogus foundations and ghost livelihood projects, documents obtained by the Inquirer showed.
In 2011 after Santos moved to the Senate office of Marcos as his officer in charge, Masaganang Ani para sa Magsasaka Foundation Inc. (Mamfi) received P24.25 million for livelihood projects in Davao del Sur and Davao Oriental supposedly endorsed by the senator.
The transaction was submitted by Mamfi, one of the nongovernment organizations (NGOs) controlled by Napoles, in a report to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) that year, according to an affidavit by Marina Sula, a former employee of the businesswoman, submitted to the National Bureau of Investigation.
Sula is one of about a dozen employees of Napoles who have revealed the alleged schemes engineered by the businesswoman that had defrauded the government of P10 billion in state funds, mostly congressional allocations from the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) over the past decade.
The P24.25-million deal was the only transaction reported to the SEC and the BIR in 2011 by Mamfi, which handled nearly half a billion pesos worth of PDAF projects from 2007 to 2009, according to a report by the Commission on Audit (COA).
Marcos was earlier reported by the COA to have endorsed in 2012 P100 million of his pork-barrel allocation to Napoles’ dummy NGOs—Ginintuang Alay sa Magsasaka Foundation Inc. (P5 million), Agricultura para sa Magbubukid Foundation Inc. (P25 million), Kaupdanan para sa Mangunguma Foundation Inc. (P25 million) and Agri and Economic Program for Farmers Foundation Inc. (P45 million) through the National Livelihood Development Corp.
Marcos has not replied to the Inquirer’s text messages or calls to confirm Mamfi’s filing with the SEC and the BIR, and verify Santos’ status in his office. It could not be verified whether the money came from Marcos’ annual pork barrel allocation of P200 million or from extra pork granted through the Disbursement Acceleration Program.
The namesake son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos claimed his signatures in the letter requests and agreements that facilitated these deals were forged.
Senate connection
Sula and another whistle-blower, Merlina Suñas, revealed in affidavits submitted to the NBI that Santos was Napoles’ go-between in the offices of Marcos and Sen. Loren Legarda.
Santos originally worked as a Senate staff officer of Legarda and was able to get appointed as an officer of the National Anti-Poverty Commission and the Department of Agriculture during the second term of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Santos has since moved to the office of Marcos while continuing to provide support to Legarda under the Aquino administration. Legarda admitted to knowing Santos but claimed that “she is not my staff and is never authorized to handle any PDAF.”
Sula revealed in her affidavit that Santos was a regular visitor of Napoles at her office on the 25th floor of Discovery Center in Ortigas and her residence at 18B Pacific Plaza Tower. Santos regularly attended Mass every first Wednesday of the month as well as parties or events at the office or at the Heritage Park mausoleum of Napoles’ mother, Sula said.
Santos has been accused by the Napoles family of encouraging a former Napoles aide and cousin, Benhur Luy, to break away from the businesswoman and start his own racket. Napoles allegedly ordered Luy held captive for three months. Luy’s rescue by the NBI led to revelations about the P10-billion scam and charges of serious illegal detention for which the businesswoman is now under police detention.
Benhur Luy caper
In an interview by ABS-CBN News’ Korina Sanchez with Napoles and her family on July 23, her daughter Jo Christine said in Filipino: “If only the responsible officials and the public will listen to our side, it is easy to prove that we have nothing to do with this. This is all the work of Maya Santos.”
Santos reportedly fled the country shortly before the Inquirer started to publish a series of reports on the pork barrel scam in July.
Both Sula and Suñas said they and other JLN Corp. employees witnessed how Napoles confronted Luy last December about his side dealings with other pork barrel operators, specifically Santos, that led to Luy’s detention.
“I heard from Madam Janet that the reason why the PDAF she was getting from senators had been shrinking was due to the hidden transactions of Benhur Luy with the chief of staff or coordinators of senators. Madam Janet even called Ms. Maya, the coordinator of Senators Marcos and Legarda [during our meeting]. She (Napoles) said harsh words to Ms. Maya,” said Suñas.
In her affidavit, Sula said Napoles called a meeting with her remaining JLN employees (who served as presidents of the fake NGOs) on July 22 this year to sign an affidavit declaring that it was Luy who instructed them to establish the dummy foundations.
Sula claimed that before the NBI issued the arrest warrant against Napoles on Aug. 14, Napoles was confident that she could still turn the tide, as the case against her could take “four to five years to clear.”