New pork barrel scam involves 20 lawmakers

Photo by Robert Viñas / PCOO

MANILA – Twenty current and former lawmakers, which includes Senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Ramon Revilla Jr., ex Sen. Edgardo Angara, are accused of channeling about P500 million from their pork barrel allocations to dubious nongovernment organizations (NGOs). This information was revealed through documents given to the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

The documents were part of the evidence prepared by Levito Baligod and were obtained from statements made by four new whistle-blowers. Baligod is a lawyer who assisted in exposing the P10-billion racket involving the dummy NGOs of Janet Lim Napoles and the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).

Baligod will submit the said documents on Wednesday to the Office of the Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales.

In Baligod’s letter to the Ombudsman, he wrote “May I respectfully refer to you for appropriate actions the enclosed affidavits of four witnesses who detailed their knowledge on the involvement of certain government officials and private individuals in the so-called PDAF scam.”

He also said that the PDAF funds were given to the questionable NGOs “through the solicitation of other service providers using exactly the same modus as that of Janet Napoles.”

Baligod added, “The witnesses share their knowledge on how the malversation of P490,685,000.00 of PDAF happened and the participation of each of those who appear to be responsible.”

Aside from Revilla, Enrile, and Angara, some of the lawmakers involved in the scam include Former Davao Rep. Prospero Nograles, Former Rep. Joseph Santiago, Former Rep. Roberto Cajes, Former Rep. Florencio Miraflores, Iloilo Rep. Neil Tupas, Former Rep. Carol Lopez, Former Rep. Edgar San Luis, Rep. Arturo Robes, Former Rep. Joel Villanueva, Former Rep. Rodolfo Antonino, Former Rep. Reno Lim, Rep. Julius Ledesma IV, Former Rep. Evita Arago, Former Rep. Rachel Arenas, Former Rep. Alfonso Umali  Rep. Al Francis Bichara, Former Rep. Marina Clarete,

Meanwhile, Angara denies this accusation saying that they never assigned funds to Kagandahan nor he knows Queenie Estanislao and Maylanie Asuncion.

 “We never assigned funds to the said organization and based on our office records and the Senate finance committee there was absolutely no allocation,” claimed Angara.