MANILA, Philippines—Time to end the speculation.
Janet Lim-Napoles has named 11 senators allegedly involved in the P10-billion pork barrel scam in her signed list that Justice Secretary Leila de Lima personally handed to Sen. Teofisto Guingona III on Thursday.
Topping the one-page list are Senators Bong Revilla, Jinggoy Estrada and Juan Ponce Enrile, who are fighting indictment for plunder along with Napoles over the alleged P10-billion pork barrel scam.
The list also includes Senators Vicente Sotto III, Loren Legarda, Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, Alan Peter Cayetano, Gregorio Honasan Jr., Francis Escudero, former Sen. Manuel Villar and the late Sen. Robert Barbers.
De Lima went to Guingona, chair of the Senate blue ribbon committee, to request a one-week extension of the deadline today for her submission of the list he had subpoenaed.
Guingona said he granted De Lima’s request to submit Napoles’ extended affidavit that her lawyers were still working on by May 22 but that he insisted that she hand over the controversial list.
Handwritten annotations
“I said it should be submitted today because today is the deadline. So she has given me the list,” Guingona told reporters, who were given copies of the list. “It is time we put an end to all these speculations.”
Earlier, Guingona also released to reporters a list given to him by former Sen. Panfilo Lacson.
In an annotation, Napoles scribbled the name “Cong. Angara.” She also listed down San Juan Rep. Joseph Victor Ejercito, now a senator, among the House lawmakers.
Guingona released the list more than a month after it had kept the people abuzz about its contents.
Calls have increased for the disclosure of the list since Napoles handed it to De Lima on April 22 after a five-hour meeting during which the detained businesswoman offered to turn state witness.
Napoles’ signature appears at the bottom of the page and beneath it, the date April 12, 2014. The list also contains the names of 75 congressmen and several government officials.
“Secretary De Lima said this was signed by Janet Lim-Napoles herself in front of her,” Guingona told reporters after meeting with De Lima in his office. “I will not comment on the list. The list will speak for itself.”
Similar to Lacson’s
De Lima declined to answer questions from reporters.
Except for Napoles’ handwritten annotations, the list was similar to the unsigned Napoles list that Lacson turned over to Guingona on Tuesday.
These are Napoles’ own annotations, Guingona said, quoting De Lima.
Luy, then finance officer of Napoles, made the entries on her instruction.
Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara, a former Aurora representative, issued a statement clarifying that he allocated his pork barrel from 2004 to 2013 to schools and hospitals in his congressional district in Aurora province.
He said he released all his PDAF records in his three terms as Aurora representative to the media for transparency’s sake. “I have never allocated any of my PDAF to any NGO (nongovernment organization) for that matter. Records will bear me out,” he said.
Most of the senators have bristled at charges that they had transacted with Napoles or funneled their pork barrel to her foundations, while others, including Sotto and Honasan, have kept quiet.
Escudero said he had not seen the list yet.