Mikey Arroyo, former SC Associate justice, others named ‘Napoles agents’

MANILA — Several accounting records of Benjur Luy revealed that Pampanga Rep. Mikey Arroyo, the son of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and at least 33 others received hefty kickbacks after serving as agents and brokers of Janet Lim-Napoles inside the House of Representatives.

Aside from Arroyo, former Samar representative and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Eduardo Nachura was also tagged in Luy’s records for allegedly receiving pork commissions through Catherine “Maya” Santos, who worked with Napoles.

Most lawmakers involved in Luy’s records allegedly received up to 40 percent commission from their PDAF allocations while other kickbacks were given in kind, like sports utility vehicles and monthly amortizations all paid by Napoles.

All the money was allegedly coming from what they regard as “depositories of the lawmakers’ pork barrel” which were in the form of several bank accounts of Napoles’ fake nongovernment organizations (NGO).

A total close to P4 billion worth of PDAF-funded projects were given through various implementing agencies from 2002. All of which allegedly ended up in the bank accounts of Napoles’ companies and NGOs.

Luy’s records also showed that most of the lawmakers receive their kickbacks through bank transfers while others were given through their senior staff or close aides who were also recipients of commissions.

Still some lawmakers received their commissions in session halls, in their offices while others meet in cafés such as UCC, Shakey’s, restaurants in Greenhills, World Trade Center and hotels in Edsa or Makati Shangri-la.

Also involved in the list were current Energy Regulatory Commission Chair Zenaida Ducut, who was Pampanga’s second-district representative in 2001-2004 and served as the top agent of Napoles in Congress for 25 lawmakers, Quezon City Rep. Maite Defensor and Mikey Arroyo also acted as agents for their colleagues and received commissions and Napoles lawyer Alfredo Villamor.

Meanwhile, several government agencies were also involved in Luy’s records including  departments of agriculture, transportation and communications, interior and local governments, health, public works and highways, education and agrarian reform and allocations for the Commission on Appointments.

Some Government corporations like the Technology Resource Center, National Livelihood Development Center, National Agribusiness Corp. and National Agricultural and Fishery Council were also reported to have channeled the PDAF funds to the Napoles NGOs.

Luy’s records were duly signed and were submitted to the Office of the Ombudsman for the investigation and verification.

A copy of the records was acquired by the Philippine Daily Inquirer who made the first similar report on the contents of his records.

With reports from Nancy Carvajal