Santiago tags Enrile pork scam godfather

Janet Lim-Napoles, a high-school graduate from the poor and conflict-torn Basilan province in southern Philippines, could not have built a pork barrel “empire” by herself, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago said on Thursday.

The real empire builder had to be someone more intelligent and powerful, Santiago said, referring to the brains behind the P10-billion pork barrel scam blamed on Napoles.

And who was that?

Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, Santiago said, describing the former Senate President as the godfather of the pork barrel scam.

“He is,” Santiago said when asked if it really was Enrile.

“His paternity is unquestionable. His DNA has been confirmed,” Santiago said.

The 89-year-old Enrile, who did not appear at Thursday’s hearing called by the Senate blue ribbon committee for the questioning of Napoles on the systematic theft of development funds, denied Santiago’s accusation.

“I feel compelled to issue a statement on today’s Senate hearing lest my silence in the face of the most outrageous allegations will be construed against me,” Enrile said.

“I support any investigation that seeks to uncover the truth about this PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund) scam,” he said.

“To this end, I urge Mrs. Napoles to reveal the whole truth no matter who is hurt, as only the truth will set me free,” he said.

‘Wild-eyed charges’

Without mentioning Santiago by name, Enrile said some members of the blue ribbon committee used the hearing to make “wild-eyed charges, baseless assumptions and false accusations” through which they “converted the investigation into a parody of justice.”

“They should lead the facts to a just conclusion instead of corralling their own predilections into a preordained conclusion,” Enrile said.

“Finally, let me reiterate my innocence and that of my staff members and my office,” he said.

In an interview with reporters, Santiago said testimonies from the whistle-blowers in the pork barrel scandal as well as reports by state auditors would point to Enrile as the “most guilty.”

“There are 36 of them. You have 36 people swearing on their lives. You can’t ignore 36 testimonies,” she said. “You can’t ignore actual testimonial and documentary evidence. You’ve got documentary and testimonial evidence. As trial judges, we don’t need anything more.”

Relations between Santiago and Enrile soured after a dispute over Christmas bonuses in the Senate last year.

Not the guiltiest

Santiago, who questioned Napoles for close to an hour during the hearing, said she believed the 49-year-old businesswoman wasn’t the “most guilty.”

If at all, the “most guilty” was a group of public officials, either senators or Cabinet officials, or a mix of both, she said.

“They’re the kernel. They’re the source of her strength. She wouldn’t have had the guts if she didn’t have protection,” Santiago told reporters during a break in the hearing.

“She wasn’t born rich. She didn’t have the connections to get rich that quick. She didn’t even finish college,” she said.

She wondered: How did Napoles end up a foreign investor?

“It’s not possible that a woman like her, no matter how invested, how talented, could possibly build up an empire consisting of senators, Cabinet members and representatives in so short a time. She started from poverty; she admits it. She did not even finish college,” she added.

Singled out

The doubt about Napoles being the mastermind behind the pork barrel scam came up with the senators’ offer of immunity for her in exchange for her disclosing the identity of the real brains behind the racket.

Santiago told Napoles that she must be the least guilty, not the most guilty, to be given immunity and she went on to say that Napoles could not be the most guilty one in the conspiracy to steal public funds.

Santiago singled out Enrile, who is facing plunder charges in the Office of the Ombudsman for the scam along with Napoles, Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Revilla Jr., and 34 others, in her discussion of the most guilty.

“Who emboldened her? Enrile. He was the Senate President at the time,” Santiago said.

COA audit report

In a special audit of the PDAF, the Commission on Audit (COA) reported that P6.2 billion in pork was transferred to 82 nongovernment organizations from 2007 to 2009, including at least eight that had links to Napoles.

The funds were sourced from the PDAF allocations of Revilla (P413.29 million), Enrile (P332.7 million), Estrada (P191.58 million) and Sen. Gregorio Honasan (P14.55 million), among other lawmakers.

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