The online news portal of TV5
MANILA, Philippines – Former congressman and current chief of the state-run Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) Joel Villanueva was implicated in the alleged pork barrel scam by provisional state witness Dennis Cunanan in his affidavit submitted to the Office of the Ombudsman.
This is according to Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Leila de Lima who on Friday told reporters that Cunanan, former director of the Technology and Resource Center, identified the Tesda chief in his 36-page sworn statement as among the lawmakers who coursed their Priority Development Assistance Fund to the TRC and made non-government organizations allegedly controlled by businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles as PDAF project implementers.
The DOJ chief said Villanueva, Citizens’ Battle Against Corruption (Cibac) party-list representative for nine years until 2010, was among those being investigated by the National Bureau of Investigation in connection with the pork barrel racket.
Last year, pork scam whistle-blowers led by Benhur Luy implicated Villanueva in the alleged racket purportedly masterminded by Napoles. Based on the documents from the whistle-blowers, Villanueva’s pork barrel funds worth P1.3 million and P3 million were allegedly released to the TRC and channeled to one of the foundations said to be controlled by Napoles.
Villanueva, a member of the Liberal Party, denied the allegations, saying he did not benefit from his pork barrel allocations while he was Cibac representative under the Aroyo administration.
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