{"id":52023,"date":"2015-06-17T00:14:54","date_gmt":"2015-06-16T16:14:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=52023"},"modified":"2015-06-17T00:14:54","modified_gmt":"2015-06-16T16:14:54","slug":"ruby-tuason-i-chose-truth-over-friendship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/06\/17\/ruby-tuason-i-chose-truth-over-friendship\/","title":{"rendered":"Ruby Tuason: I chose truth over friendship"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"State<\/a>
State witness Ruby Tuason (right) beside multi-billion pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles (Photo from Kickerdaily.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA \u2013 State witness Ruby Tuason appeared before the Sandiganbayan on Monday and testified against detained Senator Jinggoy Estrada as she chose \u2018truth over friendship.\u2019<\/p>\n

Tuason earlier admitted delivering about P19 million kickbacks to Estrada for projects from alleged multi-billion pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles in 2004 and 2008.<\/p>\n

She recalled about eight deliveries of commissions from Napoles in her Pasig office to Estrada in his Greenhills home or Senate office. She also detailed that the kickbacks were in forms of cash placed in fake Harrods designer bags.<\/p>\n

Tuason also reiterated one instance when she delivered Estrada\u2019s kickbacks in his bar.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince there was traffic along Wilson Street, I just gave him the money from the window of my car. He was in another car,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Tuason decided to testify against Estrada after she was deserted by the former when she was linked to the pork scam. Tuason then went to the United States to seek refuge.<\/p>\n

\u201cI asked him (Estrada) for help. But he said, \u2018How can I help you? We\u2019re in the same boat\u2026 I asked her (Loi Estrada) if she could help me because I didn\u2019t know what to do. But she said, \u2018How can he help you when he\u2019s also having problems?,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized something while I was in hiding. I thought they were my friends. But I guess they are not\u2026 I started to choose between friendship and telling the truth. I chose the truth,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

From the Estrada\u2019s words, Tuason realized that they were \u2018distancing themselves from me.\u2019<\/p>\n

Estrada, for his part, downplayed Tuason\u2019s testimonies.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s very amusing, amusing in the sense that she can invent stories. She can invent lies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cRemember what she told the Senate blue ribbon committee why she testified against me? She said, \u2018Because I fear for my life. I\u2019d rather die than go to jail.\u2019 That means she just wants to save herself. She wants to save her skin at my expense,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Tuason was also accused of receiving P242 million from her transactions under the pork barrel scam. She later on returned P40 million to the government, asserting that the said amount was all she received from the kickbacks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA \u2013 State witness Ruby Tuason appeared before the Sandiganbayan on Monday and testified against detained Senator Jinggoy Estrada as …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":52024,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95,4377],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","category-public-probe","mauthors-cyra-moraleda","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}