NAPOLES TIPPED OFF ON MALAMPAYA FUNDS

Vultures Feasted On Typhoon Victims

By the Philippine Daily Inquirer

Detained businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles had received advance information that the Arroyo administration was planning to release money from the multibillion-peso Malampaya Fund, according to whistle-blower Benhur Luy.

Napoles was tipped off in July 2009, three months before Malacañang issued the directive releasing money from the Malampaya Fund, according to Luy.

Devastation wrought by Tropical Storms “Ondoy” and “Pepeng” in September 2009 provided the Arroyo administration with the justification to release P900 million from the Malampaya Fund for disaster relief and rehabilitation in October of the same year.

The P900 million, however, ended up in bogus nongovernment organizations (NGOs) of Napoles via the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to supposedly help storm victims.

Government placed the damage to agriculture, infrastructure and property from Ondoy at P11 billion. The damage caused by Pepeng was estimated at P27 billion.

Luy said Napoles had called a meeting of her JLN Corp. staff in their office at the Discovery Suites in Pasig City in July 2009 because she had found a new funding source for their “racket”—the Malampaya Fund, royalties from the gas project off the west coast of Palawan province.

“Present at the meeting were Madame Janet Lim-Napoles, myself, Merlina Suñas, Evelyn de Leon and Ronald Lim. Madame Janet Lim-Napoles told us that she could get funds from the DAR where her contacts were Secretary (Nasser) Pangandaman and Undersecretary (Narciso) Nieto,” Luy said in an affidavit.

The four JLN employees—Luy, Suñas, De Leon and Lim—were among the heads of dubious nongovernment organizations formed by Napoles that tapped P10 billion in pork barrel funds in exchange for kickbacks for senators, representatives, their staff and heads of conniving agencies.

Ermita letter

Luy’s revelation showed Napoles’ deep ties with the Arroyo administration. She came to know of its plan months before then Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita gave agencies the green light on Oct. 13, 2009, to use the Special Account in the General Fund (Fund 151) of the Department of Energy (or the Malampaya Fund).

Ermita directed the agencies to use the Malampaya Fund “in such amounts as may be necessary for relief operations, rehabilitation, reconstruction, and other works and services to areas affected by natural calamities.”

Napoles’ scheme to access the Malampaya Fund went into motion nine days later when Nieto formally requested a P900-million budget “to provide directly to our farmer-beneficiaries the necessary inputs to help them recover from their losses ” in a letter dated Oct. 22, 2009, to then Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya.

“Based on our past experiences, we realized that providing the farm communities the means to do this would be the best way to help them accelerate recovery from these two calamities,” said Nieto, who placed the damage to communities of agrarian reform beneficiaries from Ondoy and Pepeng at P10 billion.

The Arroyo administration ended up spending P14 billion from the Malampaya Fund supposedly for storm-ravaged areas.

Ghost recipients

Luy and Suñas, a fellow whistle-blower, said that there were zero deliveries for the DAR livelihood projects as the signatures of town mayors were forged and the names of the recipients on the list were fake.

Suñas said she acted as project coordinator for JLN Corp., the Napoles company, with the DAR for the Malampaya operation.

In her affidavit, Suñas said the signatures of Nieto and the heads of the NGOs in the tripartite memorandum of agreement for the distribution of the P900 million were genuine but those of local government officials “were forged.”

The local government units were supposed to be the recipients of the agricultural kits that were to have been supplied by the Napoles NGOs. “But no delivery was ever made, all the receipts were manufactured for the liquidation of the funds,” Suñas said.

Funds remitted to Napoles

Suñas said the amounts of money received by the NGOs were all remitted to Napoles.

Based on the liquidation report, the P900 million was released to 12 Napoles NGOs:

Abundant Harvest for People’s Foundation led by Vanessa Eman (P75 million); Bukirin Tanglaw Foundation led by Gertrudes Kilapkilap (P75 million); Dalangpan Sang Amon Utod Kag Kasimanwa Foundation led by Jesus Castillo (P75 million); Ginintuang Alay sa Magsasaka Foundation led by John B. Lim (P77.5 million); Gintong Pangkabuhayan Foundation led by Eulogio D. Rodriguez (P82.5 million);

Karangyaan para sa Magbubukid Foundation led by Simplicio Gumafelix (P82.5 million); Kasaganahan para sa Magsasaka Foundation led by Genevieve Uy (P75 million); Kaupdanana para sa Magsasaka Foundation led by John Raymund de Asis (P75 million); Masaganang Buhay Foundation led by Ronald Lim (P55 million); Saganang Buhay sa Atin Foundation led by Lilian Español (P80 million); and Tanglaw para sa Magsasaka Foundation led by Nova Kay B. Dulay (P62.5 million).

Excuse

Luy’s testimony showed that Ondoy and Pepeng were just excuses that the Arroyo administration made up along the way as it implemented its plan to dip into the Malampaya Fund for purposes other than energy development.

Ondoy struck Metro Manila and nearby areas on Sept. 26, 2009 and Pepeng hit northern and central Luzon in the first week of October. The back-to-back storms killed about 930 people.

October 1 2013

Drilon Pushed To Corner

OMBUDSMAN MORALES SAYS SENATORS

COULD DECIDE ON NAPOLES SUBPOENA

By TJ Burgonio

Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines—Some senators are now calling for a vote on whether the Senate should exercise its authority to subpoena Janet Lim-Napoles to its inquiry into the P10-billion pork barrel scam.

After advising the Senate blue ribbon committee against compelling Napoles to testify, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales said Monday she was now deferring to the senators’ “collective wisdom” to decide on the matter.

Administration Sen. Ralph Recto, who has a list of questions for Napoles, said it was about time the Senate met as a whole to discuss whether to compel the businesswoman to testify at its hearing.

“Clearly it will be decided by the entire Senate. I’m sure the majority of us want to listen to her testimony if she will say anything or not at all,” he said. “Normally, if there is a conflict, it’s only the Senate as a whole that decides on matters of this nature.”

The matter could be decided in a plenary or in a caucus, he added.

Morales, in a Sept. 27 letter to Senate President Franklin Drilon, said she was standing by her earlier opinion that it wasn’t advisable for Napoles to appear in the Senate inquiry ahead of the hearing on a plunder complaint against her.

But Morales on Monday said she recognized the Senate’s authority.

Supreme in its sphere

“That the Senate is supreme in its own sphere was never meant to be challenged. I thus submit to the collective wisdom of its members,” Morales said in her three-paragraph letter to Drilon.

Drilon, whose office released Morales’ letter, did not reply to calls. When the Inquirer called, his staff said he was in a meeting.

When the blue ribbon committee resumed its inquiry on Tuesday last week, the committee chair, Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, castigated Justice Secretary Leila de Lima for not bringing the whistle-blowers. De Lima said their appearance would telegraph the prosecutors’ punches in the plunder complaint against Napoles.

When Guingona issued a subpoena for them for Thursday’s hearing, however, De Lima complied.

For the same hearing, Guingona also forwarded for Drilon’s signature a subpoena for Napoles. But Drilon sought the opinion of the Ombudsman, who opined it wasn’t advisable for Napoles to appear at the inquiry.

Morales asserted that the publicity that would be set off by Napoles’ testimony would affect public interest and prejudice the safety of witnesses and disposition of cases against her.

The National Bureau of Investigation has filed the first set of complaints against Napoles, three senators and 34 others in connection with the scam.

Vote urged

Guingona said Drilon was wrong to seek the Ombudsman’s comment on the matter, insisting that the power of the Senate was supreme.

Guingona later wrote Drilon appealing for a reconsideration of his earlier move. Drilon, whose photograph with Napoles in one of her lavish parties has been widely publicized, referred the matter anew to Morales.

“Ongoing judicial proceedings do not preclude congressional hearings in aid of legislation. This was upheld several times in the Supreme Court. I agree that we should put this to a vote,” said Sen. Grace Poe.

Sen. Sergio Osmeña III agreed with the Senate’s authority to compel witnesses to appear, but said it was useless to invite Napoles since her own lawyer said she wouldn’t talk.

Sen. Nancy Binay said she was more inclined to move on and focus the inquiry on other nongovernment organizations used in the scam.

Napoles has been at the center of the pork barrel scam. The businesswoman allegedly ran her racket from a posh hotel in Pasig City, where her staff churned out letter-requests for funds from lawmakers, using fake signatures of local officials and concocting dummy foundations as recipients.

Source: Manny Piñol