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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