Luy does the math: Tuason got P41M kickbacks from Enrile pork

Self-confessed bagman Ruby Tuason allegedly received at least P41 million in kickbacks from the pork barrel funds of Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, according to computations made by principal witness Benhur Luy before the Sandiganbayan on Friday.

During the bail hearing from plunder of accused mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles, Luy was asked by Associate Justice Samuel Martires about the cost of all the projects of Enrile and how much from these did Tuason earn as kickbacks. The antigraft court Third Division is hearing the plunder case against Enrile.

Tuason has admitted delivering kickbacks to detained Sen. Jinggoy Estrada and is also tagged as the bagman for Enrile’s rebates. Enrile is under hospital detention.

Reviewing his daily disbursement report, Luy said Tuason served as Enrile’s middleperson from 2004 to 2009.

Tuason allegedly received a five percent commission from 2004 to August 2006, while she received a 10 percent rebate from then on to 2009, Luy said.

When Martires asked how much is Enrile’s pork barrel project during the period, Luy computed and said it amounted to P42.9 million from 2004 to 2006, and P395 million from 2006 to 2009.

Calculating the kickbacks, Luy said Tuason received P2.145 million in rebates in the first period, and P39.5 million in the second period.

Adding Tuason’s five and ten percent kickbacks, Luy calculated that Tuason received a total of P41.645 million rebate involving Enrile’s pork projects only.

This could mean that Tuason’s kickbacks could be more than the amount she has returned to government amounting to P40 million. Tuason has also admitted serving as bagman for Estrada.

Luy has also said Tuason had transactions which he was not able to record because these were done outside the office and directly with Napoles.

“There were transactions Napoles directly gave to Ruby Tuason done outside the office of JLN Corp. (This is) not recorded in my daily disbursement report,” Luy said.

Tuason is not yet off the hook, too, after being implicated in the Malampaya fund scam where P900 million in storm victims’ aid were spent to ghost projects for kickbacks.

Napoles has tagged Tuason as conniving with her in pilfering the Malampaya funds to 12 bogus foundations of Napoles.

According to a complaint filed by the National Bureau of Investigation, Tuason received P242.775 million from Malampaya for a still unknown principal.

The plunder complaint implicated 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 of ‘‘Ondoy’’ and ‘‘Pepeng’’. The Malampaya funds, sourced as royalties from a gas field off Palawan, are supposed to be spent for energy-related projects.

Tuason went into hiding abroad at the height of the scandal, and resurfaced last February 2014 supposedly due to her conscience. She has turned provisional state witness and is expected to testify against Napoles and Estrada.

Napoles is serving a life sentence when she lost to the serious illegal detention case filed against her by Luy, her entrusted finance officer who blew the lid on the alleged scheme of pilfering lawmakers’ Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF) to ghost projects for kickbacks.

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