Senator Manny Villar
MANILA, Philippines – Senator Cynthia Villar cried foul on Tuesday over reports linking her husband to alleged “pork barrel” scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles, saying it was an “exaggeration” meant to make the issue more controversial.
Media reports named her husband, former Senator Manny Villar, as among the lawmakers who allegedly endorsed a 407-million information technology project in 2002 and 2003 that was cornered by Napoles.
But Mrs. Villar, who was a member of the House of Representatives at that time, said the project was a “simple computerization program” of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) and her constituents just happened to benefit from it.
“Every year namimigay ng computer ang DOTC tapos kami binibigyan for our constituents. In fact, hindi naman kami nagre-receive nun,’yung mga bibibigyan nila. But they informed us…” she told Senate reporters.
(Every year, the DOTC is giving away computers and it also gives us for us to distribute to our constituents. In fact, we were not the ones who received it, the beneficiaries. But they informed us…)
“E kami naman bakit hindi namin tatanggapin ‘yun, sayang din ang computer. But how they buy [them] or where the money came from, and kung magkano ang bili nila sa computer, wala kaming pakialam du’n,” she said.
(Why would we not accept the computers when they would just be wasted. But how they buy them or where the money came from, and how much they bought the computers, we would not know.)
Mrs. Villar pointed out that none of her husband’s Priority Development Assistance Fund also known as “pork barrel” went to that specific project of the DOTC.
“Hindi. Parang program ‘yun ng computerization ng DOTC. So sila ang bumibili nu’n, hindi namin alam kung saan nila bumibili nu’n, kung magkano nila binibili ‘yun. Binibigay lang nila sa aming mga constituents. Bakit ngayon kami na naman ang pinuputukan n’yan?”
(No. It’s a computerization program of the DOTC. They bought it, we don’t know where and how much they bought it. They just gave it to our constituents. Why is it being taken against us now?)
She said that if there are questions about the project, it should be the DOTC that should explain.
“E ‘di tanungin nila ang DOTC, sila ang bumili e. Hindi nga namin alam kung sino ang supplier nila. Ang lagay, ‘pag binibigyan ka ng computer tatanungin mo magkano ba ang bili mo nyan, sino ba ng supplier? Baka hindi ka bigyan,” she said.
(Why don’t they ask the DOTC? They are the ones who bought them. We didn’t even know who the supplier was. You think when they give you computers; you’re still going to ask how much they bought them? Who was the supplier? They might not give them to you)
She lamented that some quarters are just using the issue to link their name to Napoles.
“Ngayon sinasabi nila si Napoles daw ang supplier, ni hindi namin kilala si Napoles. That was 2002, walang nakakakilala kay Napoles in 2002. How will you know na masama ‘yun?”
(Now, they are saying Napoles was the supplier, we didn’t even know who Napoles was. That was 2002, nobody knew Napoles in 2002. How will you know that was anomalous?)
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