Farmers deny receiving benefits from Enrile’s pork

Rice farmers in Batangas. Daniel Zuckerkandel / Shutterstock

MANILA –Two farmers from Pangasinan on Friday denied receipt of any livelihood projects supposedly funded by Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile’s pork barrel.

Through a testimony at the Sandiganbayan, Leanardo Corpuz and Rogelio dela Cruz denied being benificiaries of any form of livelihood programs supported by the lawmakers’ Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).

The two farmers were the first batch in the list of “ghost beneficiaries” who will be asked to testify in the anti-graft court.

The said beneficiaries will make their testimonies against the detained businesswoman, Janet Lim-Napoles.

Napoles now  faces charges for being the alleged mastermind of the P10-billion pork barrel scam.

The two farmers also denied that it was their signature which appeared in the documents proving that they have indeed, received livelihood assistance from  the programs funded by Enrile’s pork barrel.

Corpuz said that he was not even aware of any existing financial assistance given to farmers in their area in 2010.

He added that he only had awareness of  the said packages when he was interviewed by several investigators from the Office of the Ombudsman confirming his receipt of the said packages.

“I did not receive those items,” Corpuz said. “Even the signature on the list (of beneficiaries) was not mine,” he insisted.