INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines – Lawmakers included in the alleged list of pork barrel scam beneficiaries gathered up their defenses Tuesday to show they did not benefit from the billion-pesos racket of pillaging funds meant to ease poverty in the country.
These solons, who are members of the bloc allied to the President, took it to a news briefing on Tuesday to prove they never transacted with Janet Lim-Napoles, the alleged mastermind of the scam. These are Batangas Rep. Sonny Collantes and Isabela Rep. Giorgidi Aggabao.
While the two denied transactions, Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali admitted he once coursed his Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF) to a Napoles NGO. But he claimed he didn’t know it was bogus.
Apparently, Umali coursed P1.5 million in agriculture funds to the Napoles NGO Kaupdanan para sa Mangunguma Foundation Inc.
But the solon, who was included in Napoles’ list of beneficiares, said his pork funds were not diverted to ghost projects, and instead reached the farmer beneficiaries.
“I do not deny that there is a P1.5 million project not my PDAF but an organic agriculture fund of the Department of Agriculture that was conduited to a Napoles NGO … kasi hindi ko naman alam na Napoles NGO ‘yun,” Umali said.
“It was revealed that our constituents really received the goods or the commodity,” he added.
Umali also defended his brother Oriental Mindoro Governor Alfonso “Boy” Umali, who was included in Napoles’ list of scam beneficiaries as a former representative in the province from the 12th to 14th Congress.
“I also would like to take this opportunity to defend my brother… Wala siyang dealings at all with any of the Napoles NGO,” Umali said, adding that their inclusion may be because they are allied with the president.
“They wanted to bring down the ratings of the President through his friends,” Umali said.
Meanwhile, Collantes said the list itself showed that there was no Special Allotment Release Order (Saro) issued to authorize the release of the funds from the budget department. Collantes was included this time in Luy’s list of scam beneficiaries published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
“I, Sonny Collantes of Batangas, never had any transactions with Mrs. Napoles, Mr. Luy or any of their NGOs,” he declared.
“My name was maliciously included in that list… The list even states that there is no Saro that went to them… and if there is no Saro, there is no transaction,” Collantes added.
Aggabao, who is deputy speaker in the House, also denied that he coursed his PDAF to the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) as alleged in Luy’s list.
He said his only implementing agency at the time he was alleged to have pillaged funds was to the Isabela government, and not to DOTC.
Aggabao cited Saro documents in 2003 that showed he received P20 million in pork funds released to Isabela government as implementing agency. Meanwhile, in 2004, at least P10 million were coursed to the same local government.
The deputy speaker also claimed he has been coursing his PDAF to the Isabela government since.
“I have all the amounts with me. I have all the dates with me and in the Saro are indicated the implementing agencies. At no instance did any of my Saro from 2003 up to 2013 show that I dealt or coursed my funds with DOTC or with any agency,” Aggabao said.
“You know this is a big puzzle to us. If it’s not in our documents so how did it appear that our names are in the list?” he asked.
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