{"id":8692,"date":"2014-05-03T23:19:18","date_gmt":"2014-05-03T15:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=8692"},"modified":"2014-05-03T23:19:18","modified_gmt":"2014-05-03T15:19:18","slug":"tuason-returns-p40m-to-govt-gets-immunity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/05\/03\/tuason-returns-p40m-to-govt-gets-immunity\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuason returns P40M to gov&#8217;t, gets immunity"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\"><p>Ruby Tuason returns Php40M to govt <a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/ukRBGP8cDO\">pic.twitter.com\/ukRBGP8cDO<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 robert mano (@robertmanodzmm) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/robertmanodzmm\/statuses\/462120493294710784\">May 2, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>MANILA \u2013 Assistant Ombudsman Asryman Rafanan reported that the Office of the Ombudsman has granted Ruby Tuason immunity and the status of state witness in exchange for a tell-all testimony about the multi-billion peso pork barrel scam.<\/p>\n<p>Rafanan informed the media that the special panel conducted the preliminary investigations and decided to grant Tuason\u2019s requests.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In a 5-page immunity agreement forged between the Ombudsman and Tuason,\u201d Rafanan said. \u201cTuason was granted immunity from prosecution in the said [priority development assistance fund] cases in exchange for undertaking to testify on her personal knowledge on these cases and produce documents in her possession on the details of the alleged misuse of the PDAF and subject to terms and conditions of the immunity agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rafanan also mentioned that Tuason returned P40 million to the Philippines government. According to Tuason\u2019s previous testimonies at the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearings, this is the amount of money she received as \u201ckick back\u201d from all the embezzled public funds between Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, Atty. Gigi Reyes, and former senate president Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\"><p>\nRuby Tuason returns Php40M to government which was derieved from PDAF transactions <a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/74EJbV4Fim\">pic.twitter.com\/74EJbV4Fim<\/a> \u2014 robert mano (@robertmanodzmm) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/robertmanodzmm\/statuses\/462137854794022912\">May 2, 2014<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>However, despite returning the money, he said that Tuason\u2019s immunity is not written in stone.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The proposed testimony of Tuason was found to be necessary in determining the truth of the acts committed and was found to be material,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>During her appearance before the Committee, Tuason detailed how she allegedly delivered millions to Estrada and Reyes as part of her tasks under Janet Lim-Napoles\u2019 instructions. She said she even delivered these kickbacks to Estrada in his very own office in nonetheless but the Senate of the Philippines.<\/p>\n<p>Tuason testified, &#8220;It would be hypocritical of me to say that I was not motivated by commissions from Mrs. Napoles. I was. The mistake was grave and selfish. The decision haunts me with regret. My conscience can no longer take it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #333333;\"><em>With reports from ANC, Yahoo! Philippines, and InterAksyon.com<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #333333;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ruby Tuason returns Php40M to govt pic.twitter.com\/ukRBGP8cDO \u2014 robert mano (@robertmanodzmm) May 2, 2014 &nbsp; MANILA \u2013 Assistant Ombudsman Asryman &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":8694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,95],"tags":[2796,2797,392,1579,2795,2794],"class_list":["post-8692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news-ph","tag-immunity","tag-ombudsman","tag-pdaf-scam","tag-pork-barrel-scam","tag-returns-p40m","tag-ruby-tuason","mauthors-ching-dee","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8692","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\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}