Hold Cabinet men, solons ‘equally liable’ in ‘pork’ scam, Sandigan told

MANILA, Philippines — The former head of an alleged Janet Lim-Napoles’ conduit to lawmakers’ pork barrel funds decried selective persecution in the charges against him, tagging high-ranking Cabinet and Congress officials as “equally liable” to the offenses.

Former Technology Resource Center (TRC) director general Antonio Ortiz said this in his motion before the Sandiganbayan fifth division to quash the information against him and recall the arrest warrant.

Ortiz said equally liable were:

* Budget Secretary Florencio Abad
* Senate President Franklin Drilon
* Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr.
* House appropriations committee chairperson Isidro Ungab
* Former Budget secretaries Emilia Boncodin, Romulo Neri, and Rolando Andaya Jr.
* Former Senate Presidents Manny Villar and Juan Ponce Enrile
* Former Speaker Jose De Venecia Jr. And Prospero Nograles
* Former House appropriations committee chairpersons Jose Ma. Salceda and Joseph Emilio Abaya

“The selective and arbitrary filing of the case against the accused, and biased exclusion of other public officials who appear equally liable, constitute discriminatory persecution,” Ortiz’s motion read.

Ortiz said documentary evidence would show that “there are other public officials and persons who jointly or by their indispensable cooperation, committed the same offense, together with the named accused, in the above-captioned cases.”

Enrile and Drilon were also tagged as former Senate finance committee chairpersons while Andaya as former appropriations chairperson.

Among the incumbents tagged by Ortiz, the following are allies of President Benigno Aquino III – Abad, Drilon, Belmonte, and Ungab.

Andaya, now Camarines Sur Representative, was accused of allegedly receiving P255 million from alleged pork scam mastermind Napoles while he was budget secretary.

Andaya also reportedly signed almost all the special allotment release orders (Saros) from 2007 to 2009 issued to the three senators – Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada and Juan Ponce Enrile – indicted for plunder in the Sandiganbayan.

While Andaya has not been charged for his involvement in the pork barrel scam, he is implicated in the Malampaya Fund scam, in which P900 million meant for agrarian reform communities devastated by storms in 2009 was allegedly pocketed by officials through bogus nongovernment organizations (NGOs) created by Napoles.

Faced with graft charges, Ortiz left for San Francisco, California, on Sept. 6, 2013 long before the Sandiganbayan issued a hold-departure order against him.

Since he is still out of the country, Ortiz is considered at large and has yet to post bail from his seven counts of graft.

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