‘Pork’ scam: De Lima confirms TESDA chief Villanueva’s signatures were forged

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima on Monday confirmed a National Bureau of Investigation's finding that the signatures of adminisration ally and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority director general Joel Villanueva in the alleged P10-billion pork barrel scam-related documents were forged.

"May mga ganoong findings ang NBI," De Lima told reporters in Manila, reacting to a Philippine Star article citing a four-page NBI report dated March 31, 2014 saying specimen signatures of Villanueva did not match with those in the custody of the Commission on Audit (COA).

 

De Lima said Villanueva's supposed forged signatures were among those still being "evaluated" for the third batch of complaints related to the illegal diversion of Priority Development Assistance Fund allocations.

 

De Lima admitted that the NBI finding about Villanueva's forged signature was a "very important factor" in deciding whether to include the TESDA chief and former party-list lawmaker in the third batch of complaints.

 

"Lahat ay ine-evaluate pa ang supposedly nasa third batch na sina-suggest pino-propose ng NBI ay continuously being evaluated until ma-file namin," she said.

 

"Kasama iyan sa evaluation especially na ang talagang pinaka-standard namin ng pag-file ng kaso sa Ombudaman, sinisiguro namin na ang fina-file namin ay talagang malakas na hindi lang papasa sa preliminary investigation kundi kampante kami na pagdating sa trial ay magpo-prosper ang kaso," De Lima added.

 

Asked in which documents Villanueva's supposed forged signatures appeared, De Lima said: "Hindi ko pa ma-disclose kasi under evaluation nga."

 

Villanueva's name appeared on the list prepared by Technology Resource Center's Dennis Cunanan, an accused in the graft case concerning the pork barrel scam.

 

The list supposedly contained the names of those who gave their pork barrel funds to bogus non-government organizations linked to alleged scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles.

 

Villanueva, a former Citizens' Battle Against Corruption (CIBAC) party-list representative in the House of Representatives, has denied the accusation.

 

Villanueva also denied personally knowing Cunanan.

 

Pork barrel whistlblowers had earlier admitted in a Senate inquiry to forging signatures of lawmakers in liquidation forms used in the PDAF scam transactions.

 

On Monday, De Lima said that apart from liquidation forms, investigators are still also evaluating other documents like memorandum of agreement and letters of authority and referrals are being checked for forged signatures.

 

De Lima reiterated the need to be careful in the investigation, as well as in whatever information the Justice Department and the NBI releases to the public.

 

"Alam nyo naman ang impression ng karamihan ng kababayan natin na kapag ni-refer na ng NBI at DOJ ang kaso, naniniwala na ang karamihan na malakas ito kaya maingat din kamin diyan," said De Lima.

 

"Kaya nga kami mabagal at matipid so far in making those referrals to the Ombudsman. It is only when we are truly convinced na gino-go namin ang kaso," she added. — RSJ, GMA News