Sen. Jinggoy Estrada. POOL PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Detained Senator Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada’s camp blamed whistleblower Benhur Luy and implementing agencies for the alleged non-existent beneficiaries of his pork barrel funds.
A statement issued by Estrada’s office on Wednesday insisted that he had no hand in the implementation of the projects funded under his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) also known as pork barrel, saying his only involvement in the process was to identify the projects.
“We wish to reiterate that the implementing agencies and only the implementing agencies have the power to choose specific NGO (non-government organization) to carry out the projects,” said the statement.
“The endorsements of certain NGOs were recommendatory at best with the ultimate choice of NGOs left to the implementing agency in accordance to laws and regulations.”
Estrada’s camp said it was unfortunate that several media entities “unfairly” attributed to the senator the failure of the implementing agencies to strictly implement and/or monitor the implementation of projects funded by the PDAF.
“Moreover, assuming that there were bogus and non-existent beneficiaries, it must be noted that it was Benhur Luy who fabricated the said documents and invented the said names,” said the statement.
“It was also Benhur Luy’s name that appears in the documents which state that it was Luy who received the funds as president of the non-government organization in question. These disclosures came up during the cross-examination of Atty. Vic Escalante,” it further said.
It was Escalante, one of the field investigators of the Office of the Ombudsman, who testified before the Sandiganbayan Tuesday that a 19-month-old infant and several dead persons were among the “farmers” who purportedly received farm inputs purchased out of Estrada’s pork barrel allocation.
“It is also worth noting that Atty. Escalante was unequivocal in his admission that he has no personal knowledge concerning the alleged delivery to and alleged receipt of Sen. Estrada of money/kickbacks/commissions/rebates from his PDAF – which forms the core of the plunder complaint against Sen. Estrada,” the statement said.
Estrada’s camp also noted Escalante’s testimony in court that he had no personal knowledge on the issuance of statement SAROs (special allotment release orders) and notices of cash allocation relating to the PDAF allocation of Estrada, and on the disbursement and utilization of said funds.
“Hence, his testimony can be considered as merely hearsay,” it further said.
RELATED STORY