Palace unfazed over conflicting testimonies of pork scam witnesses

By: 11 years ago

Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang seemed unfazed over the conflicting testimonies of two whistleblowers in the pork barrel scam, saying that it is important to hear both sides of the issue.

“Of course, it’s important to us that they tell their own story and their own side of the case,” deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said at a televised press briefing on Friday.

On Thursday’s Senate hearing on the pork scam, Technology Resource Center (TRC) director general Dennis Cunanan denied that he received any kickbacks in the scam.

The state-owned TRC was used as a conduit to course through lawmakers’ pork funds to the bogus non-government organizations of alleged scam brains Janet Lim-Napoles.

But main whistleblower Benhur Luy stood by his affidavit that Cunanan received at least P960,000 in commissions from the billion pesos racket of funnelling lawmakers’ discretionary funds to ghost projects for kickbacks.

Valte said they leave it to the Department of Justice to determine who between the two is telling the truth.

“(T)hat will remain unanswered for now and we will leave that to the court to finally determine (who’s telling the truth,” she said.