TRC handled P.6-B pork

By: Nancy C. Carvajal - 11 years ago

Dennis Cunanan (Photo from www.dost.gov.ph), Sen. Bong Revilla Jr. (Inquirer file photo), Janet Napoles (Inquirer file photo)

At least P600 million from the pork barrel allocations of various legislators passed through the Technology and Livelihood Resource Center (now known as Technology Resource Center, or TRC) when Dennis Cunanan was the deputy head of the agency.

Cunanan, 42, who is on leave as director general of the TRC and a provisional state witness in the investigation of the P10-billion pork barrel scam, told the Inquirer that the funds were funneled to the TRC by Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Revilla Jr. from their Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) allocations from 2007 to early 2009.

He said the TRC was used as an implementing agency for PDAF-funded phantom projects proposed by dummy aid organizations set up by businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, the alleged brains behind the pork barrel scam.

“My estimate of the funds that went through the center could be around P600 million for Napoles and non-Napoles (nongovernment organizations),” Cunanan said.

Cunanan was interviewed by the Inquirer in a coffee shop on Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (Edsa) before he was received into the Witness Protection Program following the announcement of Justice Secretary Leila de Lima of his acceptance as provisional state witness in the investigation of the pork barrel scam on Friday.

Luy’s record: P539M

According to the records submitted by principal witness Benhur Luy, the TRC received P539 million from lawmakers from 2007 to early 2009.

The records showed that Napoles’ last transaction with the TRC involved a project funded by the PDAF allocation of Enrile.

Luy said P25 million in project funding covered by special allocation release order (Saro) 09-00847, dated Feb. 12, 2009, was given to Agrikultura para sa Magbubukid Foundation headed by Jocelyn Piorato.

One of the respondents in the pork barrel scam case, Piorato is a niece of Evelyn de Leon, who was identified by Cunanan as the bagman of Napoles in the TRC.

The financing was supposedly for livelihood projects in Rosales and Umingan towns in Pangasinan province; San Agustin town in Surigao del Sur province; San Juan town in La Union province, and San Luis town in Agusan del Sur province.

Luy’s records also showed that Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) head Joel Villanueva funneled P4.3 million to Masaganang Ani para sa Magsasaka, a bogus aid organization formed by Napoles and headed by Marina Sula, now a state witness in the pork barrel scam investigation.

The release of the fund was covered by Saro 007 08703, dated Nov. 9, 2007.

Management fee

Cunanan said the TRC retained 5 percent of funds that passed through the agency as management fee.

He said that apart from the 30-page sworn statement that he submitted to the Office of the Ombudsman on Friday, he also submitted “voluminous” documents that would show the legislators had knowledge of the use of the bogus aid groups of Napoles in the expenditure of their PDAF allocations.

The documents would corroborate the testimonies of the whistle-blowers, Cunanan said.

Among the documents, he said, were letters of endorsement from the lawmakers designating Napoles’ dummy aid groups as recipients of their PDAF funds, memorandums of agreement, and other internal communication showing that the lawmakers cooperated with Napoles.

Cunanan said he was still on indefinite leave from the TRC, but he planned to go back to work soon.

“I will be back around March after a seminar abroad,” he said.

Setting good example

Cunanan said he immediately filed for an indefinite leave after he was implicated in the pork barrel scam last year.

“It was the dictate of delicadeza (decency) that drove me to go on leave and to make a good example to my coworkers in the government,” Cunanan said.

He said he personally talked to legislators and their designated representatives about Napoles’ dummy aid groups as recipients of their pork barrel funds, but had no knowledge of kickbacks for them.

Cunanan said he talked to Estrada, Revilla and Jessica Lucila “Gigi” Reyes, Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile’s chief of staff, as part of the verification process of the TRC.

Asked why he had to talk to the lawmakers, Cunanan replied, “It’s my personal protocol to talk to the lawmakers, to show respect for their position.”

How much kickbacks did the legislators get?

“I would not know how much kickbacks they received, but the pressure they exerted on us to expedite release of funds to their personally designated organizations was very glaring,” he said.

Christmas rush

He said that once Revilla ordered him to expedite the release of a check for a Napoles aid organization although it was two days before Christmas.

“It was Dec. 23 and we did not do anything else and my staff had to work overtime because of the pressure from Revilla to release the money for the Napoles NGO before the Christmas break,” he said.

“We had no choice. He is a senator. We had to do his bidding,” he added.

Cunanan denied he made a deal with the Department of Justice (DOJ) so he could be taken in as a state witness.

“I made no deal with the DOJ or with anyone because I believe I have strong evidence that could eventually lead to my being discharged from the case. But why should I wait long for the truth to come out when it can come out now if I offer to cooperate?” he said.

Cunanan said no one pressured him to turn state witness.

“I was among the first who wanted to come out and tell the truth when this broke out, but a process should be followed and I respect that,” he said.

He said he knew the ultimate decision to grant him immunity from prosecution lay with the Ombudsman.

He didn’t get kickbacks

Cunanan maintained that he did not receive any kickbacks from Napoles although he was at some point a signatory to checks for her dummy aid organizations.

“I never received any commission from her or from anyone who dealt with the TRC,” he said.

Cunanan, however, admitted meeting with Napoles in his office when he was the second in command at the TRC.

He said Napoles barged into his office and introduced herself, telling him she just came from the office of then TRC Director General Alan Ortiz.

“She identified herself as Jenny and told me she had a project with the TRC that had already been authorized by Ortiz,” Cunanan said.

He said Ortiz issued a memorandum that bypassed him in all pork matters and that it was only when he took over Ortiz’s post that he “realized the magnitude of the transactions involved.”

Cunanan also said that contrary to the declarations of Revilla and the other legislators involved, their signatures on the letters of endorsement submitted to the TRC were genuine.

He said he knew the signatures were genuine because he personally called the lawmakers to verify the authorization for the use of their PDAF allocations.

He said the documents he submitted to the Ombudsman showed the lawmakers knew the designation of Napoles dummy organizations as conduits for their PDAF–funded projects.

Validating signatures and endorsement letters was a standard procedure in the TRC, he said.

Cunanan said the lawmakers or their staff called up the TRC to find out the status of the requests for release of funds and “verify if everything went well, like project proposals and financial plans.”

In his affidavit, Cunanan disclosed that there were instances between 2007 and 2009 when congressmen personally showed up at the TRC to follow up the release of checks to Napoles’ phony aid groups.

“Almost often the mere presence of these visitors caused undue panic among our staff and they had to be welcomed at the lobby in deference to their position in the government,” Cunanan said.

NGOs banned

He said that after he was appointed by President Aquino as TRC director general, he issued a memorandum of agreement, which was dated July 16, 2010, that barred 44 aid organizations, including Napoles’ groups, from the TRC.

The ban came after the Commission on Audit (COA) reported that those organizations failed to fully implement and liquidate projects funded from the PDAF.

Cunanan said he ordered that no agreement related to the implementation of livelihood projects should be entered into by the TRC with aid organizations until all deficiencies noted in COA audit reports had been resolved.

He said that prior to his appointment as TRC head, his role as deputy director general of TRC in the PDAF projects was “merely perfunctory and ministerial.”

He maintained that PDAF-funded projects implemented by the TRC were processed and supervised under and approved by Ortiz.

“They were the ones who actually dealt with the offices of the legislators concerned as well as the NGO that supposedly implemented the projects,” he said.

Ortiz is one of the 38 people facing plunder charges in the Office of the Ombudsman.