Cunanan busted: Sandiganbayan learns he’s not needed at world meet

By: Marc Jayson Cayabyab - 10 years ago

Dennis Cunanan. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—A Sandiganbayan Justice is not simply buying the story of state witness Dennis Cunanan that he is required to be abroad even as he faces graft charges over the pork barrel scam.

The court’s first division Associate Justice Rafael Lagos on Thursday grilled Cunanan’s lawyer Reynaldo Robles over his client’s motion for authority to travel to Japan from July 7 to 15, and to the United States from July 20 to August 3.

Robles said Cunanan is required to go to Japan for the activities of the Junior Chamber International, where Cunanan is a world secretary general.

Meanwhile, Cunanan is also required to go to US for the United Nation Global Partnership Summit, where Cunanan would serve as main moderator to deliver the welcome address, Robles said.

Lagos, however, said he looked through the program of the event and said there are three others who would deliver the address.

“Do you think the JCI needed an additional one (speaker) for the program?” he said.

When Robles said Cunanan is the main moderator, Justice Lagos said: “It’s not him in the program. Why don’t you look at the attachment?”

Robles answered that Cunanan is the “over-all moderator,” to which Justice Lagos said: “If he is the over-all moderator, he (Cunanan) should have been placed there (program).”

After hearing the arguments of both parties, the court submitted Cunanan’s motion for resolution.

In his motion, Cunanan asked the court to lift the hold departure order against him as he faces graft charges for his alleged involvement in the pork barrel scam.

The former director general of the Technology Resource Center (TRC) faces seven counts of graft as co-accused of senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Revilla Jr. in the pork barrel scam.

Cunanan had been arraigned in his graft case with Estrada and Revilla.

He is conditionally arraigned in the third division hearing Enrile’s case pending the resolution of finding probable cause to hold the former Senate president on trial.

Cunanan is accused of using TRC as a conduit between lawmakers and the bogus foundations of alleged mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles to earn kickbacks.

As provisional state witness, Cunanan has testified that Senators Estrada and Revilla called him up personally so that the senator’s pork barrel funds were funneled to Napoles’ bogus foundations. Revilla and Estrada have surrendered, while the arrest warrant against Enrile remained pending.

The Ombudsman had junked Cunanan’s bid for immunity from charges.