Former Malacañang social secretary Ruby Tuason and Energy Regulatory Commission Chair Zenaida Ducut allegedly acted as bridge between Janet Lim-Napoles and lawmakers in the alleged diversion of congressional pork barrel funds to her bogus nongovernment organizations, according to the financial records of whistle-blower Benhur Luy. INQUIRER PHOTOS
Fourth of a series
MANILA, Philippines—Around P100 million ended in the pockets of agents who acted as bridge between Janet Lim-Napoles and lawmakers in the alleged diversion of congressional pork barrel funds to her bogus nongovernment organizations (NGOs), according to the financial records of whistle-blower Benhur Luy.
Luy’s hard disk drive was copied by the Inquirer when his family and his former lawyer Levito Baligod visited the Inquirer on April 27, 2013, to ask for help to expose the alleged raid by Napoles and her highly placed clients of P10 billion in state funds meant for rural development.
Based on the project cost, an agent received a 2-percent commission from Napoles for every PDAF transaction brought to a Napoles NGO.
“A broker is someone who is well connected and the primary requirement is you can be a bridge of Napoles to lawmakers and make them allocate funds to her controlled organizations,” Luy told the Inquirer in previous interviews. Based on the profiles of the agents of Napoles, all were well connected and had access to lawmakers.
Even the lawyers of Napoles—Freddie Villamor and Tet de Joya—served as agents for Sen. Jinggoy Estrada and his mother, former Sen. Loi Ejercito, since 2005, according to the records kept upon the instruction of Napoles.
Energy Regulatory Commission Chair Zenaida Ducut appeared to be the top agent of Napoles for some senators and congressmen. Ducut received the cash advances for Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, according to Luy’s files.
Former Malacañang social secretary Ruby Tuason, who has turned state witness, did not only act as agent for Senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Jinggoy Estrada, she also acted as a one-time agent for Sen. Edgardo Angara in 2008.
One “JLN/Check disbursement” entry dated Aug. 19-20, 2008 indicated “Ruby Tuason-full payment of rebate charge to Angara P2.5 m project to Kidapawan-P1.187.00 million.” JLN is Napoles’ main company.
Tuason’s late husband Butch Tuason, a former head of the Philippine Sports Commission, also acted as an agent for Enrile and received several “rebates” for it, according to the files.
The records showed that former Anti-Poverty Commission Undersecretary Catherine Mae “Maya” Santos served as a conduit of Napoles since 2003 and had acted as agent of former Sen. Rodolfo Biazon, now a Muntinlupa representative. She was listed in the records also as Olga Tossan and Andrea Reyes.
According to the Luy records, there were these other payoffs:
— Presita So also listed as “Jessica-Daan” received an estimated P1.43 million commission out of Enrile’s PDAF in 2006.
— A Jun Adriano received P500,000 on Jan. 10, 2006, supposedly for the project of former Sen. Manny Villar.
— Jen Corpus, a staff of Sen. Vicente Sotto, received a total of P3 million.
— Mon Arcenas in 2003 received cash advances for former Sen. Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel.
— Mayor Rabang of Umingan, Pangasinan, got P25,000 for a Pimentel project.
— A certain Boy and Ampy received a P550,000 commission for the late Sen. Robert Barbers.
— A certain “Canda” also received a commission of P50,000 for Barber’s project, as well as another agent, “Atty Laloy,” (P30,000).
— Pauline Labayen, a staff member of Estrada, also acted as agent and received commissions the amount of which the Inquirer was still trying to determine at press time.
— Former Department of Agriculture official Ophelia Agawin received commissions for the projects of Enrile, Loi Ejercito and Biazon.
— Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr.’s political officer Richard Cambe received an estimated total of P21.3 million as commissions from Napoles.
— Washington Plaza for 2005 and 2006 received an estimated commission of P6.1 million for the projects of Biazon, Estrada and Loi Ejercito.
— Mayor Fermo Armendarez received rebates of P50,000 for a project of Biazon.
— Roy Bongalo also received P88,000 as commission for Biazon’s projects.—With reports from Kate Pedroso and Marielle Medina, Inquirer Research; Karl Angelica Ocampo and Jaris Villavicencio, trainees
FIRST PART OF THE SERIES
Complete records of Benhur Luy bared
SECOND PART OF THE SERIES
THIRD PART OF THE SERIES