Senators find inconsistencies in Cunanan testimony

SPOTLIGHT SHIFTS Dennis Cunanan, director general on-leave of the Technology Resource Center, testifies during the Senate blue ribbon committee hearing on the pork barrel scam while principal witness Benhur Luy is all ears. RAFFY LERMA

MANILA, Philippines—No sweeping statement of approval—such as a “buzzer-beating and game-winning three-point shot”—characterized Dennis Cunanan’s testimony on Thursday.

Benhur Luy stood in the way of the director general of the state-owned Technology Resource Center (TRC) in his appearance before the Senate blue ribbon committee investigating an alleged P10-billion pork barrel scam.

Cunanan, who is among 38 people being investigated in connection with the racket allegedly engineered by detained businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, denied that he benefited from the scam and has applied to become a state witness.

But Luy, the principal whistle-blower and former Napoles aide, stood by his earlier statement that Cunanan received at least P960,000 in kickback from the alleged diversion of the congressional Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) to ghost projects.

Cunanan, who volunteered to submit to a lifestyle check and to open his bank accounts to prove he didn’t benefit from the scam, submitted his statement of asset, liabilities and net worth (SALN) to the committee, but got questioned on to how he could rent a house for his family at the swank White Plains subdivision on a P65,000 monthly salary from TRC.

After the hearing, reporters asked Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, the committee chair, if Cunanan’s testimony was similar to the basketball term he used to describe the evidence provided by Ruby Tuason during her appearance before the panel last month.

“No. 1 we will have to review it, evaluate it, scrutinize it. No. 2, we will have to compare it to the testimonies of other witnesses, with transcript of the past hearings and No. 3, we will have to take into account the demeanor of Mr. Dennis Cunanan,” Guingona said. “And then after we evaluate all that can we only come to a conclusion.”

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who subjected Cunanan to intense questioning, told reporters she found Cunanan a “credible witness” in spite of the inconsistencies in his testimony.

“What muddles the issue is he’s trying to prove he’s innocent,” Santiago said. “But in my judge’s mind, it’s possible a witness may be false on some aspects of his testimony but might be credited with truth-telling in the major aspects of his testimony. In other words telling not the whole truth. That does not cancel his entire testimony.”

Guingona in the last hearing of the committee immediately praised Tuason, a former Napoles bagman who fled to the United States after the scam broke out. He said Tuason’s testimony is a “three-point shot that wasn’t only a buzzer-beater but also a winning shot.”

Tuason testified that she personally delivered kickback money to Sen. Jinggoy Estrada and to Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile’s chief of staff Jessica Lucila “Gigi” Reyes. It was the first time that a witness said she personally gave funds to a senator implicated in the scam.

In reply to a question from Sen. Francis Escudero, Luy recounted that Cunanan once went to Napoles’ office to pick up P960,000. He said he was asked by Napoles to prepare the money.

“Since I was not the one who personally dealt with Sir Decu [Cunanan’s nickname] … I handed the money to Ms. Evelyn de Leon in the conference room,” Luy said. “In my records, based on the voucher, as far as I remember, it was perhaps an SOP [another term for a share in the proceeds of the corrupt practice],” Luy added.

De Leon is a Napoles employee.

Cunanan said he was TRC’s deputy director general at the time. “The one receiving what supposed to be are commissions is the head of agency concerned,” he said. Cunanan said that he wouldn’t have verified and validated documents concerning the lawmakers’ PDAF allocations if he received any amount from Napoles.

“If I was an accomplice in this issue, why did I, when I was already the head of the agency, have these NGOs verified to the extent of having them blacklisted,” Cunanan said.

“With my conscience and with the conscience of my family, it’s difficult to admit something that isn’t true,” Cunanan added, with his voice cracking with emotion.—With a report from Nancy C. Carvajal

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