Cunanan conundrum elates senators Estrada, Revilla

Two of the senators implicated in the P10-billion pork barrel scam have gleefully pounced on the discrepancy in the testimonies of two provisional state witnesses, perhaps in hopes that this would prove to be the undoing of the government’s case against them—and their deliverance from guilt.

Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. on Friday took turns taking apart Benhur Luy’s and Dennis Cunanan’s conflicting testimonies to cast doubt on the integrity of the plunder complaint against them.

‘Already crumbling’

“Right now, they are already crumbling. How much more in the courts?”  Estrada said.

Estrada said Luy’s and Cunanan’s contrasting statements about the latter (the director general of the Technology Resource Center) receiving a P960,000 kickback from alleged scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles would cause problems for the prosecution if the cases against him, Revilla and Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile were to reach the courts.

“The things that Cunanan said may turn out to be beneficial to our case,” Estrada said in a phone interview a day after Cunanan testified before the Senate blue ribbon committee inquiry into the scam.

Less than adamant?

A lawyer for Revilla said Cunanan was less than adamant in denying Luy’s allegation that he went to Napoles’ office at the Discovery Suites and picked up a paper bag supposedly containing P960,000.

“This means Cunanan couldn’t deny what Luy said in his sworn statement, especially after Luy stood by his statement [during the Senate hearing]. Luy could be lying or Cunanan could be lying or they are both lying,” said Joel Bodegon, Revilla’s lawyer.

“In their desire to pin Senator Revilla and the opposition down, their lies are now exposed,” Bodegon added.

The lawyer said the documents that Cunanan tried “to sell to the public are the same documents that have been forged and falsified.”

“Cunanan’s own admissions that the documents look similar, are the same, and appears to have been prepared by  the same person, only prove what we have been saying all along that there is a criminal syndicate to which Benhur Luy and the heads and officials of the implementing agencies, including Dennis Cunanan’s, belong,” Bodegon said.

‘Flimsy’ testimony

Estrada said there was no way Cunanan could have implicated him in the P10-billion pork barrel scam with the testimony he gave on Thursday at the Senate.

“How could he have pinned me down? Over the phone?” Estrada said, referring to Cunanan’s statement that he had talked with the senator, who allegedly told him to speed up the processing of the projects that were to be funded by his pork barrel, or Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) allocations.

The pork funds, coursed through the TRC, where Cunanan was then deputy director general, would allegedly be released to one of the nongovernment organizations controlled by Napoles.

“[His testimony] was rather flimsy.  He said that it was [whistle-blower] Benhur Luy, who called … passed the phone to him.  But even Benhur Luy was saying that he was never able to talk with me,” Estrada said in a telephone interview.

Estrada apparently missed the parts in both Cunanan’s and Luy’s testimonies where they both said Luy was able to talk to ranking staff members of the two senators—not Estrada and Revilla themselves—before passing the phone over to Cunanan.

Fears for gov’t case

At the Thursday hearing, Sen. Grace Poe expressed concern that the inconsistency between Cunanan’s and Luy’s testimonies on Cunanan’s alleged involvement in the scam may jeopardize the government’s case.

“I wish to reiterate and it is not and will never be my intention to derail the investigation, but I think that we will be remiss to the people if we don’t question Mr. Cunanan very well,” Poe told Justice Secretary Leila de Lima.

“And the last thing we would like—and I think the people don’t deserve this—is for another witness to put holes on the testimony of other star witnesses,” Poe added.

RELATED STORIES

Luy insists Cunanan got P960K in commission from pork barrel scam

Luy personally saw Dennis Cunanan carrying bagful of cash from Napoles

Cunanan to quit TRC soon for new job

Janet Napoles and the pork barrel scam