Senator Jinggoy Estrada leaves the residence of his father, Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada, in Greenhills, San Juan on Monday, June 23, to proceed to Camp Crame to surrender following the issuance of an arrest warrant against him and several others in connection with the alleged pork barrel scam. (MNS photo)
MANILA (Mabuhay) — Detained senator Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada on Monday bared that pork barrel scam witness Ruby Tuason has 89 bank accounts under her name.
Interviewed after his bail hearing from plunder over the scam, Estrada showed to reporters a list of Tuason’s bank accounts furnished to his lawyers in compliance with their request for bank documents from the Anti-Money Laundering Council.
Estrada said this shows that Tuason was lying when she testified in a Senate Blue Ribbon committee probe on Feb. 13 that she had to sell her house to return to government P40 million in kickbacks because she didn’t have enough cash in bank.
He said these banks were used to stow away her alleged kickbacks from the Malampaya fund scam.
State witness Ruby Tuason takes her oath Thursday (Feb. 13, 2014) before the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing on the pork barrel anomaly as Justice Secretary Leila de Lima (right) and whistle-blower Benhur Luy (left) look on. (MNS photo)
“(It means) she has a lot of money, kickbacks from the PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Funds), and I assume more from the Malampaya fund,” Estrada said
Estrada also said Tuason’s bank accounts is proof that she was lying when she testified before Senate under oath that she was not liquid to return to government her rebates.
“Hindi na niya kailangan magbenta ng properties para mabayaran ang gobyerno (She doesn’t have to sell properties to pay back the government). P40 million is small compared to what she got from the Malampaya scam,” Estrada said.
Estrada’s lawyer Sabino Acut Jr. also bared to the court the list of Tuason’s bank accounts during Estrada’s bail hearing.
Tuason said she had numerous bank accounts because she invested her money in various other bank accounts by money placement.
“If you do it in a weekly basis, you can have 52 bank accounts,” Tuason said.
Prosecutor Hazel Decena Valdez said the list of bank accounts only indicate account numbers and not the balance.
Tuason, the social secretary of Jinggoy’s father, former President Joseph Estrada, had admitted before a Senate hearing that she delivered bags of kickbacks to the Senate office of Estrada, who is detained for plunder over the alleged diversion of his PDAF to ghost projects for kickbacks through accused mastermind Janet Lim Napoles’ bogus foundations.
She also admitted before the Sandiganbayan that she served as Estrada’s agent in 2004 and in 2008 and that she had received a 5 percent and 10 percent commissions from Estrada’s pork barrel projects, respectively.
She had returned to government her kickbacks amounting to at least P40 million as a condition for her to become state witness and thus immune from suit.
But her immunity does not save her from prosecution over another corruption scandal, the alleged Malampaya fund scam, where farmer storm victims were deprived of P900 million in assistance from energy funds after all these funds were purportedly pilfered through Napoles’ bogus foundations.
Napoles had tagged Tuason as showing her a list of government funds amounting to P25 billion, and recommending the P900 million Malampaya fund that would be coursed through the Department of Agrarian Reform to earn kickbacks.
Tuason is part of the Malampaya fund scam complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman charging plunder against Napoles, former President Gloria Arroyo,former Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, former Budget secretary Rolando Andaya and his undersecretary Rafael Nieto, former DAR secretary Nasser Pangandaman, DAR finance officer Teresita Panlilio, and Budget Undersecretary Mario Relampagos.
Arroyo was implicated by virtue of an Executive Order she issued authorizing the release of the said energy funds into aid for storm victims.
Tuason, meanwhile, was implicated as receiving P242.775 million from Malampaya but for a still unknown recipient.
The charges over the pork barrel scam have resulted in the detention for plunder of Estrada and Senators Ramon Revilla Jr. and Juan Ponce Enrile, as well as of former representatives Rizalina Seachon Lanete and Edgar Valdez.
Accused mastermind Napoles is also detained for plunder. She was sentenced to life in prison for the serious illegal detention of principal whistleblower Benhur Luy. (MNS)