THE VISIT Composite photo shows lawyer Levito Baligod, whistle-blower Merlina Suñas and her husband, and Benhur Luy’s parents, Arturo and Gertrudes, during their first visit to the Inquirer on April 27, 2013. The hard disk drive containing Luy’s files is on the table (lower left). RAFFY LERMA
13th of a series
Benhur Luy, the principal whistle-blower in the P10-billion pork barrel scam, has confirmed the Inquirer reports based on his accounting files published by the paper for the past 12 days.
He also confirmed the Inquirer’s account of how it came into possession of the hard disk drive containing his files.
More than a month after Luy was rescued by the special task force unit of the National Bureau of Investigation, the parents of Luy, Gertrudes and Arturo, his siblings, Annabel and Arthur, accompanied by their former lawyer Levito Baligod, came to the Inquirer for the first time late in the evening of April 27, 2013, to ask for help in exposing the alleged racket of their employer and relative, JLN Corp. head Janet Lim-Napoles.
Also with them was another former Napoles employee turned whistle-blower, Merlina Suñas, and her husband.
Luy’s childhood friend Flor Villanueva, the wife of Arthur, was also present.
Benhur visits Inquirer
Benhur was not present during that first meeting. He, however, came to the Inquirer before the publication of the six-part series on the massive corruption allegedly engineered by Napoles.
Baligod, as lawyer of the Luys at that time, offered to the Inquirer the contents of the hard drive as additional proof of their allegations about Napoles and her highly placed clients.
The Inquirer copied the hard drive of Luy, which contained at least 20,000 files covering the JLN Corp. transactions for 2002-2012.
The Inquirer during that first meeting asked for additional evidence from the whistle-blowers apart from the sworn affidavits submitted by Luy, his parents and the other whistle-blowers to the NBI and the Department of Justice in connection with the illegal detention case Luy filed against Napoles and her brother, Reynald Lim, who remains at large.
Thanks, PDI
Luy, in an earlier interview, told the Inquirer that his parents had no knowledge of the explosive contents of his files.
On Thursday afternoon, Raji Mendoza, the new lead counsel, came to the Inquirer office to personally hand a statement of support from Luy.
The letter was handwritten and signed by Mendoza.
The Inquirer is reproducing the statement in full.
On April 27, 2013, the family of Benhur Luy, together with Merlina Suñas and friends, assisted by their then counsel, Levito Baligod, sought the aid of PDI in exposing the reason behind Benhur’s illegal detention, this being the alleged illicit use and abuse of public funds by Janet Napoles and her cohorts.
Benhur further confirms the existence of his external hard drive which was at that time given to Atty. Baligod by Benhur’s parents for safekeeping.
On this occasion, the contents of Benhur’s hard drive were shared by Atty. Baligod with the Inquirer to support the allegations against the Napoles group and the Inquirer copied the same.
About the same time, threats on the life of Benhur were imminent and he was compelled to move incognito from one safe house to another with the protection of the NBI’s special task force.
Benhur is thankful the Inquirer has the fortitude in seeking the truth, the same resolve he shares.
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