Gigi Reyes complained she was shortchanged, says witness

The Sandiganbayan Third Division started hearing the plunder trial of lawyer Jessica Lucila “Gigi” Reyes and her co-accused Janet Lim Napoles in connection with their involvement in the pork barrel scam. MARLON RAMOS / INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

A key pork barrel scam witness testified at the Sandiganbayan Wednesday that lawyer Gigi Reyes had at one time complained that the kickbacks she received from suspected pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles was short by P500,000.

Returning to the witness stand, whistleblower Marina Sula testified that Reyes herself signed documents pertaining to the release of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) allotments of her former boss, Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, to Napoles’ fake foundations.

Repeating what she testified at Napoles’ bail hearing last year, Sula told the antigraft court’s Third Division that Reyes, Enrile’s long-time chief of staff, had complained that a box of money that was delivered to Reyes by socialite Ruby Tuason, was short of P500,000.

The amount was allegedly part of Reyes’ “rebate,” or commission, for allotting a portion of Enrile’s PDAF, the official name of the congressional pork barrel, to a project of Masaganang Ani para sa Magbubukid Foundation Inc., one of Napoles’ bogus nongovernment organization which Sula headed.

“Ruby Tuason told me that Gigi Reyes had complained to her that the money she gave her was short by P500,000,” Sula said in Filipino during direct examination by assistant state prosecutor Jennifer Agustin-Se.

Sula, the first prosecution witness to be presented at the trial of the plunder case against Napoles and Reyes, said she had knowledge of the incident because Tuason, who has admitted to being one of Napoles’ agents, herself had told her of Reyes’ concern.

Reyes, who was seated just a few feet away from the witness stand, was leaning forward and appeared to be listening intently during Sula’s three-hour testimony.

Napoles was seen tearing up while Sula was testifying. She later told reporters that she became emotional “because I could not take (Sula’s) lies anymore.”

Sula testified that she was present whenever Napoles, primary whistle-blower Benhur Luy and other employees of the JLN Corp. would place bundles of cash in boxes for delivery to lawmakers who had illegally siphoned off their PDAF to Napoles’ network of spurious foundations.

Quizzed by Associate Justice Samuel Martires, Sula said she herself once helped in preparing bundles of P500 and P1,000 bills which were packed in boxes. She said each box may contain as much as P3 million, or about 30 bundles of bills.

However, Martires noted that the witness had earlier told the court that she did not participate in “serious matters” in carrying out Napoles’ unlawful activities.