Mikey Arroyo also Napoles agent
MANILA, Philippines—At least 34 people, including Pampanga Rep. Mikey Arroyo, the son of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, acted as agents and brokers of Janet Lim-Napoles in the House of Representatives and received hefty kickbacks, according to the accounting records of Benhur Luy.
The records also showed that before he was appointed associate justice of the Supreme Court and while serving as Samar representative in 2001-2004, Eduardo Nachura received his pork commissions through Catherine “Maya” Santos, who worked with Napoles.
Santos, also tagged in the files as Olga Tossan, was former undersecretary of the Anti-Poverty Commission during the Arroyo administration. Nachura retired as associate justice in June 2011.
Luy’s computer records—duly signed by the whistle-blower—have been submitted by the National Bureau of Investigation to the Office of the Ombudsman as part of the evidence against those involved in the alleged schemes to divert P10 billion in congressional Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) to ghost projects and kickbacks over the past decade.
The computer files were copied by the Inquirer from Luy’s hard disk drive (HDD) which his parents, accompanied by their former lawyer, Levito Baligod, gave to the newspaper during a visit on April 27, 2013, to ask for assistance to expose the illegal activities of Napoles.
Apart from current Energy Regulatory Commission Chair Zenaida Ducut, who was Pampanga’s second-district representative in 2001-2004 and served as the top agent of Napoles in Congress for 25 lawmakers, Quezon City Rep. Maite Defensor and Mikey Arroyo also acted as agents for their colleagues and received commissions, the files showed.
Article continues after this advertisementNapoles lawyer Alfredo Villamor also acted as agent for some of the congressmen and likewise received commissions.
Article continues after this advertisementSome of the lawmakers allegedly received their kickbacks in kind, like sports utility vehicles, the monthly amortizations of which were paid by Napoles with funds taken from the various bank accounts of her fake nongovernment organizations (NGOs) that served as depositories of the lawmakers’ pork barrel.
Luy’s records also showed that most of the congressmen received up to 40 percent in commissions from their PDAF allocations.
The records showed that Napoles deducted another 5 percent from the total project cost “for tax payments.”
Some of the congressmen’s kickbacks were coursed through their senior staff or close aides who themselves acted as agents and received a corresponding commission from 1.5 to 2 percent.
Based on Luy’s records, some of the more than 150 past and present members of the House of Representatives treated their kickbacks from their pork barrel funded projects like regular transactions and received them from Napoles through bank transfers, checks and cash bank deposits to their accounts or to a family member.
Some congressmen on Luy’s records received their kickbacks from Napoles employees, like Luy, right in the session hall and in their offices in Congress.
Other congressmen went to the JLN office in Ortigas to get commissions personally from Napoles.
Still other lawmakers received their kickbacks in cafés, such as UCC, Shakey’s and restaurants in Greenhills and at the World Trade Center. The hotel of choice for the congressmen in meeting with Napoles was either Edsa or Makati Shangri-la.
Luy’s records showed that close to P4 billion worth of PDAF-funded projects from 2002 to 2012 were coursed through various implementing agencies, with the funds landing in the bank accounts of Napoles’ companies and NGOs.
The agencies involved were the departments of agriculture, transportation and communications, interior and local governments, health, public works and highways, education and agrarian reform and allocations for the Commission on Appointments.
Government corporations like the Technology Resource Center, National Livelihood Development Center, National Agribusiness Corp. and National Agricultural and Fishery Council channeled the PDAF funds to the Napoles NGOs.
Some of the products listed in the Luy files as supplies of the pork barrel-funded projects were fertilizer and water-supply equipment.
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