Estrada: Pork scam witness Tuason has 89 bank accounts

Detained senator Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada on Monday said that pork barrel scam witness Ruby Tuason has 89 bank accounts under her name.

Interviewed after his bail hearing on his plunder case stemming from the pork barrel scam, Estrada showed to reporters a list of Tuason’s bank accounts furnished to his lawyers in compliance with their request for bank documents from the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).

Estrada said this shows that Tuason was lying when she testified in a Senate Blue Ribbon committee probe  on Feb. 13, 2014 that she had to sell her house to return to government P40 million in kickbacks because she didn’t have enough cash in bank.

He said these banks were used to stow away her alleged kickbacks from the Malampaya fund scam.

“(It means) she has a lot of money, kickbacks from the PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Funds), and I assume more from the Malampaya fund,” Estrada said

Estrada also said Tuason’s bank accounts were proof that she was lying when she testified before Senate under oath that she was not liquid to return to government her rebates.

“Hindi na niya kailangan magbenta ng properties para mabayaran ang gobyerno (She doesn’t have to sell properties to pay back the government).  P40 million is small compared to what she got from the Malampaya scam,” Estrada said.

Estrada’s lawyer Sabino Acut Jr. also bared to the court the list of Tuason’s bank accounts during Estrada’s bail hearing.

To which Tuason responded in a sarcastic tone: “89 bank accounts all at the same time? I don’t think so.”

When Acut asked if she would be willing to waive her right to bank secrecy, Tuason said: “Did Jinggoy waive his right, too?” eliciting reactions from the audience.

While not admitting that she owns 89 bank accounts, she said one can have numerous bank accounts by investing money in various other bank accounts by money placement.

“If you do it in a weekly basis, you can have 52 bank accounts at the end of the year,” Tuason said.

According to AMLC, Tuason has 37 accounts at the Union Bank of the Philippines, 20 at the Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corp., 16 at the Metropolitan Bank and TCO, seven at the BDO Private Bank, three at the Philippine Bank of Communication, two at the Philippine American Life and General Insurance Company, and one each at the Bank of Commerce, Philippine Strategic Growth Fund, Security Bank, and the Toyota Financial Services Philippines Corp.

Prosecutor Hazel Decena Valdez said the list of bank accounts only indicated account numbers and not the balance.

She added that Tuason could not be confronted with the document because she had nothing to do with the preparation of the list.

“It would be misleading to say that the witness is liquid. These are just account numbers,” Valdez said.

Acut also scored the AMLC for refusing to furnish them a copy of its bank inquiry report on Tuason, saying the AMLC is “shielding the witness with the tenacity of a bulldog.”

Acut then asked Tuason about her house in Las Vegas, Nevada and a four-bedroom house in California, despite her testimony under oath before the Senate that her only asset is her house in the country.

Tuason had said she used her house as collateral in loaning the P40 million from the bank to return her alleged kickbacks to government.

She said the Las Vegas house was not hers but paid for by the Delcas Related Properties Corp. where she owns shares of stocks.

She added that she only has one-fourth ownership on the California house, also clarifying that it is not a four-bedroom house.

Acut confronted Tuason, too, about her shares in Palawan Golden Shores, Rubysons, Inc., Omark Media and Signages, and Delcas Related Properties Corp., but Tuason said that either she had divested her shares or that the company had shut down.

Malampaya scam

Estrada’s lawyers had repeatedly attempted to ask Tuason about her involvement in the alleged Malampaya fund scam, where Tuason allegedly coursed P900 million in royalties from the Palawan natural gas field to the bogus foundations of accused pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles.

But Valdez said the Malampaya fund scam is subject to investigation by the Office of the Ombudsman and is immaterial to the pork scam case.

Valdez also said asking Tuason about her alleged involvement in another scam would violate her right against self-incrimination.

“What light can the Malampaya scam shed on the PDAF scam? It has nothing! … There are a million ways to skin a cat, but not excluding the basic rules of court,” Valdez said.

Estrada’s lawyer Acut said Tuason mentioned the Malampaya scam in her sworn affidavit which was admitted as evidence in court. But Valdez said the affidavit was only introduced but not offered as evidence.

“If we are not allowed our line of questioning, our right to cross examine is curtailed and my client denied fair trial,” Acut said.

The court ruled out questions on the Malampaya scam, saying it is not the subject matter of the plunder case.

Tuason, the social secretary of Jinggoy’s father, former President Joseph Estrada, had admitted before a Senate hearing that she delivered bags of money to the Senate office of Estrada, who is now detained for plunder over the alleged diversion of his PDAF to ghost projects for kickbacks through Napoles’ bogus foundations.

She also admitted before the Sandiganbayan that she served as Estrada’s agent in 2004 and in 2008 and that she had received a 5 percent and 10 percent commissions from Estrada’s pork barrel projects, respectively.

She had returned to government her kickbacks amounting to at least P40 million as a condition for her to become state witness and thus immune from suit.

But her immunity does not save her from prosecution over another corruption scandal, the alleged Malampaya fund scam, where farmer storm victims were deprived of P900 million in assistance from energy funds after all these funds were purportedly pilfered through Napoles’ bogus foundations.

Napoles had claimed that Tuason has shown her a list of government funds amounting to P25 billion, and recommended that the P900 million Malampaya fund be coursed through the Department of Agrarian Reform to rake in kickbacks.

Tuason is among the respondents in the Malampaya fund scam complaint filed before the Office of the Ombudsman. Other respondents charged with plunder are Napoles, former President Gloria Arroyo, former Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, former Budget secretary Rolando Andaya and his undersecretary Rafael Nieto, former DAR secretary Nasser Pangandaman, DAR finance officer Teresita Panlilio and Budget Undersecretary Mario Relampagos.

Arroyo was implicated by virtue of an Executive Order she issued authorizing the release of the said energy funds into aid for storm victims.

Tuason, meanwhile, was implicated as receiving P242.775 million from Malampaya but for a still unknown recipient.

The charges over the pork barrel scam have resulted in the detention for plunder of Estrada and Senators Ramon Revilla Jr. and Juan Ponce Enrile, as well as of former representatives Rizalina Seachon Lanete and Edgar Valdez.

Accused mastermind Napoles is also detained for plunder. She was sentenced to life in prison for the serious illegal detention of principal whistleblower Benhur Luy.