Napoles’ lawyer tries to cast doubt on Suñas’ credibility

By PATRICIA DENISE CHIU, GMA News

Published September 11, 2014 8:34pm

A lawyer for Janet Lim Napoles on Thursday cast doubt on the credibility of whistleblower Merlina Suñas, a former employee of the alleged mastermind of the pork barrel scam.

Napoles' lawyer Dennis Buenaventura questioned in court an earlier statement of Suñas that she received around four to five million pesos in pork barrel scam commissions from Napoles, from 2004 to 2012.

Buenaventura quoted Suñas’ testimony in a case before the National Labor Relations Commission, where she admitted Napoles gave her P2 million in commissions yearly.

In her NLRC complaint, which Buenaventura presented in court, Suñas said Napoles still owed her P1.6M in commissions.

According to Buenaventura, the discrepancies in Suñas’ testimony proved that she was not a credible witness.

“If you were telling lies before, you could be telling lies now. What we were establishing is her credibility. Can she be trusted with what she is telling us?” Buenaventura said in an interview during a break in proceedings.

Suñas was testifying in the bail hearing of Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla.

Revilla, along with Napoles and Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile and Sen. Jinggoy Estrada have been charged with plunder for allegedly diverting millions of public funds to Napoles’ bogus NGOs.

Suñas was one of the whistleblowers who exposed the scam.

Defense also confronted Suñas over the NLRC case she filed against Napoles. Suñas claimed she was illegally dismissed by Napoles, lost that case.

"As no employer-employee relationship between the parties have been established, the issue of illegal dismissal and other monetary claims of the complainants have no leg to stand on," said the NLRC decision, parts of which were read in court.

A former “accounts executive” of Napoles, Suñas has been billed as a former employee. But according to the Napoles' lawyer, the NLRC decision proved that Suñas wasn't a Napoles employee.

Justice Undersecretary Jose Justiniano, who is serving as a special prosecutor in the PDAF cases, said that the defense had not discredited Suñas’ credibility at all.

“Ang sabi ng NLRC, di naman niya employer si Napoles, kaya nadismiss yung kaso kasi wala daw employer-employee relationship," Justiniano said.

"Tama naman, kasi ang trabaho niya nun is presidente ng NGO, wala talagang employer-employee relationship. Pero bago naman nilipat siya as president ng NGO, empleyado siya ni Napoles,” he added.

Moonlighting with Napoles

In her testimony, Suñas admitted that she had worked for Napoles in some capacity since 1997, even when she was a government employee under the Naval Construction Brigade.

Suñas said she processed procurement documents and checks for Napoles, who was then dealing with the Navy by supplying spare parts of light and heavy naval vessels. At the same time, Suñas said she also worked part time with JoCris Trading, a company owned by Napoles.

But Justiniano defended Suñas’s decision to moonlight with Napoles, even when Napoles was a supplier and she was directly involved in the Navy’s procurement process.

“Okay lang yung sideline, sabi naman niyang after office hours yun. Kung pulis nga nakakapag sideline as body guard eh,” Justiniano said. —NB, GMA News

Tags: bantaykaban, sandiganbayan, porkbarrelscam, janetlimnapoles, merlinasuñas