Pork whistleblower posts bail in fertilizer scam case

Whistleblower Marina Sula during a Senate Blue Ribbon commitee hearing.
INQUIRER File Photo/RAFFY LERMA

Pork barrel scam whistleblower Marina Sula has posted a P30,000 bail on her graft case in connection with the alleged misuse of P4.86 million in fertilizer funds.

Sula was charged as a private co-defendant in the graft case filed against Department of Agriculture’s Calabarzon regional executive director Dennis Araullo and provincial agricultural officer Rodolfo Guieb. It is currently pending before the Sandiganbayan Third Division.

The case involved the alleged lack of public bidding in the purchase of 3,240 bottles of Fertigrow Liquid Fertilizer at P1,500 per bottle on May 27, 2004.

She was described as the president and incorporator of Masaganang Ani Para sa Magsasaka Foundation, Inc., a non-government organization that was later linked to the network of foundations supposedly controlled by alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles.

Napoles herself was not charged in this specific case.

Sula, a former property custodian of Napoles, testified about Napoles’ involvement in the scheme to divert lawmakers’ Priority Development Assistance Fund allocations to ghost projects.

But, for Napoles’ lawyer Dennis Buenaventura, the filing of a criminal case against Sula over the much-earlier fertilizer fund scam “strengthens our position that we do not own and control the NGOs.”

“They do things on their own. It is not true that they only follow the instructions of JLN,” he said.