Tuason suspects Enrile received more kickbacks in pork barrel scam

Senator Juan Ponce Enrile (Facebook photo)

MANILA – Whistleblower Ruby Tuason testified before the Sandiganbayan on Friday, stating that Senator Juan Ponce Enrile could have received more commissions from alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles than what was stated in the Ombudsman’s complaint.

Continuing her testimony against Napoles’ petition to post bail, Tuason told the Sandiganbayan Third Division: ‘It could have been more, your honor,’ referring to the purported kickbacks that she delivered from Napoles to Enrile.

Tuason came up with the suspicion since some of primary whistleblower Benhur Luy’s records were missing. She was referring to Luy’s external hard drive which contained the daily records of Napoles’ transactions with several senators who supposedly funded her bogus foundations and nongovernment organizations’ (NGO) projects and programs using their Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) allocations. The Supreme Court has already declared the PDAF unconstitutional.

The hard drive was then used together with the sworn affidavits of other whistleblowers as evidences for the Ombudsman to file complaints against Senators Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Bong Revilla before the Sandiganbayan.

It can be recalled that Luy earlier admitted that his records lacked details of some transactions.

Tuason, for her part, disclosed that she never knew the exact amount of the commissions as she never counted the money she delivered. She also admitted that she never directly handed them over to Enrile but to his former chief of staff Gigi Reyes.

“I never counted it personally. They [Napoles’ employees] were counting it in front of me using a machine… Kapag naka-plastic na. Hindi ko na pinapabilang. Madami kasi masyado,” Tuason said.

“Sometimes we meet in restaurants over lunch, sometimes she (Reyes) picks it (kickbacks) up in my house,” she added.