Enrile, Revilla, Angara, others charged in new P500M pork scam

Senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Ramon Revilla Jr. and former Sen. Edgardo Angara (from left), along with 17 current and former lawmakers, have been accused of channeling some P500 million of their pork barrel allocations to questionable nongovernment organizations. Lawyer Levito Baligod on Wednesday filed malversation charges against the 20 legislators before the Ombudsman. INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS

A lawyer has filed malversation charges against 20 incumbent and former lawmakers, which include Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Bong Revilla, and former Senator Edgardo Angara have misused their priority development assistance fund (PDAF) allocations amounting to at least P500 million pesos by coursing it to eight questionable nongovernment organizations.

Lawyer Levito Baligod filed the malversation charges through falsification of public documents before the Office of the Ombudsman on Wednesday against the lawmakers who allegedly squandered a total of P490,685,000.000 in nongovernment organizations not linked with alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles from 2007 to 2009.

BACKSTORY: 20 lawmakers tied to new P500M pork scam

Baligod’s affidavits contain testimonies and documents from four whistleblowers who detailed how the lawmakers supposedly misused their PDAF allocation through falsified documents and how “collusion transpired among the players to misuse the fund.”

Aside from the three senators, other lawmakers and government officials named in the complaint include former House Speaker Prospero Nograles, Iloilo Representative Niel Tupas Jr. and Technical Education & Skills Development Authority (Tesda) Director General Joel Villanueva.

In an interview aired over Radyo Inquirer 990 AM, Baligod said that aside from the eight NGOs he identified, government agencies and local government units were supposedly used in the said pork barrel scam.

Government agencies allegedly used as conduits of pork barrel funded projects include the Philippine Forest Corporation and the National Commission on Muslim Affairs, Baligod said.

The lawyer said that the DOJ should continue its investigation on administration allies who allegedly misused pubic funds.

“We filed this complaint through our own initiative to belie the claim of the Department of Justice that it already finished investigation on the PDAF scam. We filed this complaint to let the DOJ know that they should continue pursuing this case,” Baligod said in Filipino.