If Senate has video of Tuason parking in Senate, it’s now gone

Ruby Tuason. PHOTO by INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines—This one is a miss.

As senators quibbled over whether it was apt to call Ruby Tuason’s testimony a three-point shot, the Senate’s security men on Friday said they had no video footage of Tuason getting into the building via the basement parking.

Retired Maj. Gen. Jose Balajadia, Senate sergeant at arms, said that their CCTV footage of the basement parking in 2008—the year Tuason entered the building purportedly to deliver pork barrel kickbacks to Sen. Jinggoy Estrada— has long been erased.

Balajadia explained that they stored their footage of the basement parking on VHS tapes from 2002 to 2010 and that these were recycled after 30 days if there was no request for a copy, and that it was only in 2011 that they started using DVDs.

“So where are we going to get the tape? How else can I produce the footage? There’s no more VHS tape,” Balajadia said in a telephone interview.

So, it would all boil down to Tuason’s word against Estrada’s.

Testifying before the Blue Ribbon Committee last Thursday, Tuason said that when she carried bags stuffed with money for Estrada, she got off at the basement parking to avoid security checks at the main lobby.

The basement parking entrance is very near the elevator that leads to senators’ offices on the fifth and sixth floors.

Tuason, social secretary of then President Joseph Estrada, said she delivered money to Senator Estrada at his sixth floor office at least twice in 2008, but could not recall the specific dates.

She said she was met by two of the senator’s aides at the basement parking, and escorted to the elevator and up to the senator’s office on the top floor.

Estrada confirmed asking his staff to escort Tuason from the basement parking only because she usually carried two trays of sandwiches. He strongly denied receiving cash from the erstwhile close family friend.

Estrada, however, had strongly demanded that the sergeant at arms produce CCTV footage  of Tuason’s discreet entries to the Senate via the basement parking to show that he wasn’t hiding anything.

“I just want to clear the coast. I’m not guilty. She did not deliver any money to me, in my residence, most specifically in the Senate,’’ Estrada said on the floor last Monday. “I have nothing to hide.’’

Balajadia said he informed Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, chair of the Blue Ribbon Committee, about the unavailability of the footage after the hearing. He quoted the senator as saying that nothing could be done about it.

After Tuason’s testimony, which also dwelt on alleged deliveries of kickbacks to Sen. Juan Pone Enrie’s chief of staff Jessica Lucila “Gigi’’ Reyes, Guingona summed it up as a “three-point shot.”

Guingona opened the hearing by saying, “I don’t think this is just going to be a slam dunk. If you stand by your statements, this is going to be a three-point shot. A three-point shot that is a buzzer beater and a winning shot.’’

This drew a sharp rebuke from Estrada, who called this “an offensive foul.’’

On Friday, Senate President Franklin Drilon acknowledged that it was important to use such labels to lighten up the serious discussion of the scam.

But he balked at issuing an opinion on Tuason’s testimony and deferred to the Blue Ribbon Committee to make the judgment.

“This is an investigation where we are searching for the truth and ultimately there will be a committee report. Let’s allow the senators to form their opinion. At the end of the day, the senators will debate whom to believe,’’ he said over dzRH.

Tuason said she had been approached by Janet Lim Napoles to make an enticing offer to Estrada and Reyes: a 40-percent commission from the funneling of the senators’ priority development assistance fund to dubious non-government organizations.

Tuason herself admitted earning P40 million from her role as a middleman in the racket.