Pork scam repercussion shows in Malolos libel case

Sen. Jinggoy Estrada

CITY OF MALOLOS, Philippines—The pork barrel scandal has triggered a dispute that led Mayor Christian Natividad of this city to sue one of his employees for libel, accusing the employee of spreading allegations that the mayor benefited from the graft-tainted Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) of Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Gregorio Honasan.

Estrada is one of three senators facing arrest for plunder for their supposed part in the PDAF scam facilitated allegedly by detained wheeler dealer Janet Lim-Napoles.

Natividad accused Marilyn Bernardo, a member of his staff, of distributing fliers that enumerated the mayor’s alleged offenses, among them the P10-million PDAF of the two senators that was supposedly coursed to Malolos farmers but which had not reached its intended beneficiaries.

The fliers said in Filipino: “According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, dated Feb. 28, 2014, the administration of lawyer Christian Natividad was one of those that received P10 million from the PDAF of Senators Gringo Honasan and Jinggoy Estrada for the livelihood program of Malolos farmers.”

Sen. Gringo Honasan

However, the fliers did not specify the year that the allegedly misappropriated PDAF was released.

The fliers also claimed there were documents which showed that the allocation was received by the administration of Natividad but had not been delivered to the farmers.

The mayor’s complaint, filed in the City Prosecutor’s Office, cited testimonies that Bernardo distributed these fliers to fellow employees on May 4 and 5.

Natividad said the Commission on Audit (COA) had issued a certification stating that the city government had not played any role in the misappropriated PDAF.

He said the COA also concluded that the city government had not received or benefited from the PDAF.—Carmela Reyes-Estrope