Honasan, Villanueva, 7 others face graft raps over ‘pork’ scam

(Updated 3:49 p.m.) After several delays, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on Friday formally filed the graft complaints against the third batch of incumbent and former government officials allegedly involved in the multibillion-peso pork barrel scam.

 

In separate complaints filed with the Office of the Ombudsman, the NBI said Senator Gregorio "Gringo" Honasan III, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) Director General Joel Villanueva, Cagayan De Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, Manila Rep. Amado Bagatsing, La Union Rep. Victor Ortega and Abono party-list Rep. Conrado Estrella III, have all violated Section 3 (e) of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

Also charged with the same violation were incumbent La Union Governor and former La Union Rep. Manuel Ortega, former Abono party-list Rep. Robert Raymundo Estrella and former Zamboanga del Sur Rep. Isidro Real Jr.

The NBI said all the respondents were guilty of allocating their Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), more commonly known as pork barrel, to the fake foundations allegedly owned by businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, the supposed brains of the scam.

According to the NBI, the kickbacks the nine lawmakers allegedly received were as follows:

Honasan - P1.75 million
Bagatsing - P600,000
Conrado Estrella - P45.03 million
Robert Raymund Estrella - P22.675 million
Manuel Ortega - P14.35 million
Victor Francisco Ortega - P9,587,500
Real - P3.25 million
Rodriguez - P2.099 million
Villanueva - P2.33 million

They were charged with the following crimes:

- malversation of public fund under Article 217 of the Revised Penal Code
- direct bribery under Art. 210 of the RPC
- manifest partiality and bad faith in grantinf unwarranted benefits and advantage to the injury of the government (Section 3 [e] of Republic Act 3019)
- requesting a share or percentage from a government contract (Section 3 [b] of Republic Act 3019)
- entering into a transaction grossly disadvantageous to the government (Section 3 [g] of Republic Act 3019)
- granting license or privilege to a person not qualified (Section 3 [j] of Republic Act 3019)

 

^{Personnel from a private shipping company load 35 boxes of PDAF-related case documents from the National Bureau of Investigation for delivery to the Office of the Ombudsman in Quezon City on Friday, August 7. Danny Pata}

The NBI said its Questioned Documents Division had to examine the signatures of five of the respondents—Estrella III, Bagatsing, Rodriguez, V. F. Ortega, and Villanueva—upon their request.

The NBI QDD later found out that the signatures did not match the lawmakers' specimen, while it was unable to arrive at a finding on the other questioned documents.

"However, the findings and the QDD are not conclusive and binding upon the results of this investigation. This will still be subject to the scrutiny of of the Sandiganbayan in the event the Ombudsman decides to file the criminal cases with said court," read the executive summary.

Also charged along with the lawmakers was Napoles, who is currently detained at the Philippine Women's Correctional over a separate serious illegal detention charge.

Also charged were representatives of the lawmakers, namely:

Michael Benjamin (Honasan)
Anthony Dequina (Honasan)
Valentino Limchu (Honasan)
Manuel Jarmin (Honasan)
Celia Cuasay (Bagatsing)
Lourd Dexter Manalo (Estrella III)
Ronald Casareno (Estrella III)
"Irma" (Estrella III)
Zenaida Grace-Ducut (Ortegas)
Jenny Quero (Ortega)
Ronald Francisco Lim (Real)
Maximo Bautista Rodriguez (Rodriguez)
Ma. Theresa Defensor-Asuncion (Villanueva)

Also charged were heads of agencies, including:

Alan Javellana, former president of the National Agribusiness Corp
Gondelina Amata, president of the National Livelihood Development Corp
Antonio Ortiz, former director general of the Technology Resource Center
Dennis Cunanan, former deputy director general (now director general) of TRC

Mylene Encarnacion of Countrywide Agri and Rural Economic and Development Foundation Inc (CARED) and Evelyn Ditchon-De Leon of the Philippine Social Development Foundation Inc) (PSDFI), who are both presidents of Napoles NGOs, were also charged.

Implementing agency officials and employees were also charged:

Victor Cacal
Romulo Relevo
Ma. Ninez Guanizo
Ma. Julie Villaralvo-Johnson
Rhodora Mendoza
Francisco Figura
Marivic Jover
Gregoria Buenaventura
Emmanuel Alexis Sevidal
Sofia Cruz
Chita Jalandoni
  
Due to politics?

 

Villanueva, a former CIBAC party-list representative and a political ally of the Aquino administration, said he is prepared to meet the charges. 
 

"If it's gonna come to this, so be it. Hindi ako natatakot sa katotohanan at kailanman ay hindi ako umaatras sa kahit anong laban na ibinibigay sa akin ng aking mga kalaban sa pulitika," Villanueva said in a short interview with reporters.

 

Meanwhile, Rodriguez is also a known administration ally though he is not a member of the ruling Liberal Party. He is the current chairman of the House Ad Hoc Committee hearing the controversial Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL).

 

Honasan, on the other hand is the current vice president of the opposition party United Nationalist Alliance (UNA).

'Napoles cleared me'

 

Bagatsing, meanwhile, had expressed his intention to run against incumbent Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada in the 2016 mayoralty polls.

In a text message sent to reporters, Bagatsing said he is "confident" that the complaint against him will be dismissed, especially as Napoles has already supposedly clarified that he has no PDAF transaction with her.

"I will answer it at the Ombudsman. My accuser (Napoles) already retracted her charges against me and apologized publicly... I am confident that it (NBI complaint) will be dismissed," Bagatsing said.

Bagatsing's name appeared on Napoles' list of lawmakers who allegedly had transactions with fake foundations concerning their PDAF.

This list was turned over by Napoles to Justice Secretary Leila De Lima when she was still applying to be a state witness in the pork barrel scam.

Napoles' bid to be a state witness was later denied by the DOJ. At that time, Napoles clarified that not all those who appeared on the list actually received kickbacks for the allocation of their PDAF in the fake foundations.

Bagatsing said he is also confident that the NBI complaint will not affect his upcoming candidacy for mayor of Manila. "The people of Manila are wise and smart. Alam nila na politika lang 'yan," he said.

Third and last set —De Lima

In an interview, De Lima said the third batch is the last set that will be filed by the NBI related to Napoles-linked NGOs on pork transactions from 2007 to 2009.

De Lima once again denied claims that the third batch got delayed because administration allies were being implicated.

"That’s not at all true kasi sa second batch meron din doon.... So this one ay mayroon din. Pero that’s not the reason na may na-delay," De Lima said.

Former Muntinlupa Rep. Ruffy Biazon, a party mate of President Benigno Aquino III in the Liberal Party, was among those implicated in the second batch.

"Talaga naman hong igo-go talaga itong third batch. Na-delay lang dahil sa issues ng genuineness ng signatures of about four of them, so we had to address that issue first bago namin i-go, rather than ihiwalay namin, iyong may issues sa signatures and then yung wala," De Lima said.

De Lima said the complaints would not automatically undergo preliminary investigation by the Office of the Ombudsman, and would have to pass through the Ombudsman's Field Investigation Office first.

She said the FIO would have to evaluate and assess the sufficiency of the evidence involving these nine lawmakers before deciding whether to recommend the complaints for preliminary probe and eventual filing in court.

Forged signatures

The filing of the third batch of pork barrel scam-related cases suffered a setback last year after the NBI, which was probing the Napoles-related transactions, found that some of the signatures of the accused in the documents to be used by the NBI as evidence were forged.

 

Justice Undersecretary Jose Justiniano earlier said the NBI already addressed the issue of forged signatures at the course of its investigation.

 

“Ni-revise namin yung unang letter-complaint to address the issues they raised na forged daw yung mga signatures nila…and then nagdagdag kami ng additional documents. So ngayon, kahit sabihin nila na forged ang signatures nila, sinigurado namin na makakasuhan pa rin sila,” Justiniano said.

 

The first batch of officials charged by the NBI before the Office of the Ombudsman in 2013 included Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Bong Revilla Jr.  The Ombudsman then filed plunder and graft charges against the three senators before the Sandiganbayan early last year.

 

The second batch of PDAF cases, meanwhile, was filed by the DOJ before the Office of the Ombudsman in mid-2014 against five former members of the House of Representatives. The Ombudsman filed the case before the Sandiganbayan in February of this year.