Sen. Jinggoy Estrada. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/LYN RILLON
Detained Sen. Jinggoy Estrada is thinking of filing charges against Ruby Tuason, who implicated him in the pork barrel scam.
“My lawyers are studying the possibility of filing appropriate charges against Mrs. Tuason to respond to the falsehoods she said against me,” Estrada said in a statement, a day after Tuason appeared on the witness stand at the bail hearing on the senator’s plunder case.
Estrada “categorically and vehemently” denied Tuason’s statements that she delivered P19 million in kickbacks to the senator at his San Juan residence and his Senate office.
Tuason alleged that the money came from projects Estrada had endorsed to the fake nongovernment organizations of Janet Lim-Napoles, who reportedly orchestrated the scheme to funnel lawmakers’ pork barrel into private pockets.
Estrada insisted that he had never received commissions or kickbacks from Tuason, nor had he authorized her to act as his agent in transactions involving his Priority Development Assistance Fund.
“It is quite clear from Tuason’s own assertions that she is blurting out these lies, concocting stories and twisting the truth to save her neck from sure punishment stemming from her masterminding the multibillion Malampaya scam,” Estrada said, referring to the royalties the government collects from the Malampaya gas project off Palawan.–Leila B. Salaverria