Napoles ‘saved up’ for lawyer’s fees – whistleblower

A whistleblower in the alleged P10-billion pork barrel scam on Monday said suspected pork scam brains Janet Lim-Napoles has set aside millions for her legal defense in anticipation that their scheme would be discovered.

Taking the witness stand during the bail hearing of Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, Merlina Suñas said: “Di siya mapagkakatiwalaan kasi pinangako niya sa amin ay one percent. Sinabi niya na bibigyan niya kami ng commission. Pero ‘di niya binibigay ng buo, yung kalahati binibigay daw niya sa abugado para pag magkakaso yung mga NGO namin sa Ombudsman, may pambayad siya.” 

 

Suñas, an all-around employee of Napoles, was named president of People’s Organization for Progress and Development Foundation Inc. (POPDFI), one of the bogus foundations allegedly owned by Napoles.

Napoles and Estrada are facing plunder and graft charges for allegedly scheming to divert millions in the lawmaker's discretionary pork barrel funds to bogus NGO’s owned by Napoles, in exchange for kickbacks or commissions. 

 

The exchange between Suñas and Napoles’ lawyer Atty. Dennis Buenaventura stemmed when Buenaventura questioned Suñas over her alleged participation in illegal acts, including failure to deliver goods to supposed beneficiaries of her NGO.

 

“Hindi mo ba alam na pag hindi ka nag-deliver sa mga beneficiaries, you also committed illegal acts?” Buenaventura asked Suñas, to which the whistleblower replied in the affirmative.

 

However, Suñas said she trusted Napoles when the businesswoman told her that no harm will come to her for participating in the scheme. 

 

Buenaventura then mentioned that Suñas herself said in earlier hearings that Napoles cannot be trusted, prompting him to ask Suñas what exact circumstances she felt the businesswoman can be trusted.

 

The whistleblower then replied that napoles was good to them when she was in a good mood, but that she can’t be trusted to keep her word over the promised commissions. — Patricia Denise Chiu/RSJ, GMA news