Rufus Rodriguez denies dealing with Napoles, fake NGOs

Cagayan De Oro City representative Rufus Rodriguez. Photo from congress.gov.ph

Cagayan de Oro City representative Rufus Rodriguez denied Tuesday that he funneled his Priority Development Assistance Fund (Pdaf) to bogus nongovernment organizations of detained businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles.

The Inquirer reported Tuesday that Rodriguez would be among the eight officials who would be charged with graft and malversation as part of the third batch of cases in connection with the pork barrel scam.

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“We completely and absolutely deny that we are liable (in) this PDAF scam,” Rodriguez said in an interview over Radyo Inquirer 990AM.

He said he has not dealt with Napoles and any of her employees since he became a congressman in 2007.

“I have no dealings with Napoles. I don’t know her and any of her employees,” he said.

While he admitted that he gave P3.5 million of his pork barrel to the Technology Livelihood and Resource Center (TLRC) for livelihood projects, he was quick to say that his alleged signatures in the documents submitted by the bogus NGO of Napoles to the Commission on Audit (COA) were forged.

“When I got the copy of the 18 documents from COA, I saw that the signatures were all fake,” he said.

He said he has submitted his “specimen signature” to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) for them to investigate.
“NBI examined these documents and they found that not one of this were genuine,” he said.

That’s why very clearly, we are not liable for this,” he added, citing that Justice Secretary Leila de Lima should review their findings.

“The signatures are all fake,” he said, adding that the findings have to be dismissed at the level of the DOJ.

He said the DOJ and the NBI have not required him to reply to the accusations.

“They have not required us to make any answer of what any other findings they have and they will just file the case,” he said, adding there was no due process followed.

He maintained that the money he gave was for TLRC alone, and not for the fake NGOs of Napoles. IDL