Luy personally saw Dennis Cunanan carrying bagful of cash from Napoles

Benhur Luy stares at Cunanan as he denies receiving money from Napoles’ staff, contrary to Luy’s statement. KRISTINE SABILLO/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines – Benhur Luy, the principal whistleblower in the P10-billion pork barrel scam, claimed during a Senate  hearing  on Thursday that he had personally seen Dennis Cunanan carrying  a bagful of  money from  Janet Lim-Napoles.

Luy alleged that Cunanan, director general on-leave of the Technology Resource Center,  personally received P960,000 commissions  when  he met with Napoles at the latter’s office.

It was Napoles herself, he said, who had instructed   him  to prepare the money for  Cunanan.

Luy said he   placed the money in a paper bag and  handed it to certain  Evelyn De Leon, who  was also  present at a meeting room.

“Pagkalabas po ng  conference room, nakita ko sya bitbit nya (yung paper bag),”  said Luy,  responding to queries of Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III.

But  Cunanan, who was at the hearing, stood by his statement that he did not receive kickbacks  from the legislators’  pork barrel funds.

“The fact na may lapse na ho dun sa time na binigay kay  Evelyn  at binigay sa akin, I don’t know what happened…”

If indeed he had received kickbacks, then Cunanan asked why Luy still had to lobby for the release of funds  to  non-government organizations linked to Napoles coursed through the TRC.

Cunanan said he even investigated  Napoles’ NGOs when he became head of the TRC.