TRC head Dennis Cunanan posts bail

By: Marc Jayson Cayabyab - 10 years ago

Dennis Cunanan. Marc Jayson Cayabyab/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines—Dennis Cunanan, the director-general on-leave of the Technology Resource Center (TRC) posted bail for his graft charges ahead of the serving of a warrant of arrest over the pork barrel scam on Friday.

He posted P210,000 for seven counts of bail before the first, third, and fifth divisions of the Sandiganbayan.

Cunanan is a co-accused in all the graft cases of Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Ramon Revilla Jr. and Jinggoy Estrada.

Cunanan’s lawyer Odessa Bernardo said this means Cunanan voluntarily surrendered to the court.

“He no longer wanted to wait for an arrest warrant,” Bernardo told reporters.

Cunanan arrived at the Sandiganbayan just hours after Senator Ramon Revilla Jr. surrendered to the court.

Cunanan was accused of using TRC as a conduit between lawmakers and the bogus foundations of alleged mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles for the scam.

Cunanan had asked the Ombudsman to grant him immunity as whistleblower in the pork barrel scam. But the Ombudsman denied his request.

He had testified in a Senate hearing on the use of TRC as conduit for the pork barrel scam. Cunanan is currently under the Witness Protection Program for testifying in the pork barrel scam.

He has said Enrile, Estrada and Revilla submitted similarly worded project proposals to TRC to course their Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) allocations to preselected nongovernment organizations (NGOs).

Cunanan, TRC’s director general on leave, said Estrada and Revilla “pressured” him on the phone into releasing their PDAF allocations to NGOs controlled by Janet Lim-Napoles, the detained businesswoman who allegedly engineered the P10-billion pork barrel scam.