Enrile, Estrada: We pocketed not even a cent from pork

By: TJ Burgonio - 11 years ago

MANILA, Philippines—In life as in everything else, you can only give what you have.

Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Juan Ponce Enrile are not willing to give what they insist they did not have—notwithstanding testimony from whistle-blowers that the lawmakers pocketed hefty kickbacks from their pork barrel.

On Monday, they scoffed at the notices sent to them by state auditors that they return millions of pesos in their pork barrel allocations that they gave to phantom projects proposed by bogus nongovernment organizations (NGOs) through what is now known as the P10-billion pork barrel scam.

According to the Commission on Audit (COA), the scam resulted in hundreds of millions of pesos in kickbacks for the lawmakers.

Even so, Estrada and Enrile maintained that they did not pocket a cent of their pork barrel allocations that the COA said had been illegally funneled to the questionable NGOs.

So, they said, they could not return what they didn’t have.

What’s there to return?

“The money did not pass through us. What is there to return? They should go after the implementing agencies,” Estrada told reporters. “We’re not the custodians of public funds.”

Enrile was just as perplexed by the notice of disallowance from the COA.

He said: “I did not receive any money from the government. What is there to return?”

Enrile said the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) issued a special allotment release order (Saro), indicating the availability of money from the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), to government agencies, but not to him.

“I did not even receive the Saro,” he told reporters.

COA Chair Grace Pulido-Tan confirmed to the Inquirer on Thursday that the commission had sent notices of disallowance to senators and several others concerning the illegal funneling of P6.2 billion from the PDAF to questionable NGOs from 2007 to 2009.

Tan said the recipients could appeal the notices to the COA. The senators have six months to appeal.

Jointly liable

Appearing at the Senate hearing on the 2014 COA budget last October, Tan said the lawmakers were “jointly liable” for the “disallowed fund,” and as a consequence, would get a notice of disallowance.

“That’s the consequence of notice of disallowance. Those who will get such notice would become jointly and solidarily liable for the return of the money, and that is a matter of law,” Tan said.

Earlier, Tan said the COA would issue thousands of notices after a special audit showed that P6.2 billion in pork barrel was transferred to 82 NGOs from 2007 to 2009, including at least eight that had links to Janet Lim-Napoles, the alleged brains behind the pork barrel scam.

Among the sources of the funds were Senators Ramon Revilla Jr. (P413.29 million), Enrile (P332.7 million), Estrada (P191.58 million) and Gregorio Honasan II (P14.55 million).

Revilla, Enrile and Estrada as well as Napoles and 34 others are facing plunder charges over the scam in the Office of the Ombudsman.

Revilla, through his lawyer, earlier said he would contest the notice, arguing that there was nothing to return to the COA.

Appealing notice

Estrada said he would appeal the notice, maintaining that it was the implementing agencies that received the funds, not the senators.

“First, we’ll file an appeal. But knowing COA—the chair of COA is obviously very biased against me—if it’s denied, we will elevate it to the Supreme Court,” he said.

Estrada said he expected his other colleagues to take the same course of action.

“I’m not afraid because no money passed through us. The problem is, the perception of Juan de la Cruz is that the money passes through us. That’s not true,” he said.

Enrile said he would “answer” the notice of disallowance.

If at all, the COA should run after the implementing agencies, Estrada said.

“We did it in good faith. All the NGOs that were accredited were also accredited by the Department of Agriculture,” he said.

Originally posted: 8:05 pm | Monday, February 3rd, 2014