Ombudsman: No memo nailing Enrile as ‘pork’ scam brains

MANILA, Philippines – Ombudsman Conchita-Morales  strongly  denied  a memorandum  that allegedly named Senate  Minority Leader Juan Ponce-Enrile  as the  mastermind  of the P10 billion “pork barrel” funds scam.

“I’m surprised about that eight-page memo. There’s no such thing as eight-page memo,”  Morales  told reporters at the Senate on Thursday  when she attended the  plenary deliberations  of her office’s proposed budget for 2014.

“I have  several memos.  I don’t recall about an eight-page memo pero ang memo na natataggap ko more than 200 pages,” she said.

The  Philippine Daily Inquirer  reported that a memorandum   prepared by Assistant Ombudsman Joselito P. Fangon and  submitted to the  Ombudsman  last November 11 supposedly identified  Enrile as the mastermind  of the scam.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer is standing by its report.

Please read the attached PDF file of  8 of the 246-page memo obtained by the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

But Enrile, in the same article, described as a “total lie” the accusation against him.

“In due time, I will explain why it is a lie,” he said, adding that he planned to do this in a privilege speech,” the PDI quoted him as saying.

If there was indeed evidence  pointing to  Enrile as the mastermind  of the scam,  then Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago said detained Janet Lim-Napoles will now be qualified to be a state witness   since  she was not longer the most guilty among the accused in the plunder case.

Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce-Enrile. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Santiago herself believes that her nemesis, Enrile, was the  mastermind of the scam.

Under the Rules of Court she said, the motion to discharge Napoles to be a state witness should be filed by the prosecution before the Sandiganbayan

“If the Sandigan discharges Napoles as a state witness, this means that in effect she has been acquitted,” Santiago said.

“But she has to comply with the condition that she must specify every single detail of the scam hatched by the mastermind and carried out by her fake NGOs.”

Santiago said Enrile and two other senators  charged with  plunder at the office of the Ombudsman – Jose  “Jinggoy” Estrada and  Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr.,  might be suspended in the Senate once the charges were filed against them in the Sandiganbayan.

“The court will also order a bail hearing immediately to determine if evidence of guilty is strong.  In plunder cases, there is no right to bail,” she said.

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