Smoking gun vs Enrile?

MANILA, Philippines - Documents were presented at the Senate yesterday that could prove to be the smoking gun against Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile in the pork barrel scam.

Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano presented three documents purportedly showing that Enrile authorized his former chief of staff Jessica Lucila “Gigi” Reyes and deputy chief of staff Jose Evangelista II to “sign pertinent documents” to ensure the proper implementation of livelihood projects using his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel.

Cayetano presented the documents, supposedly signed by Enrile, at the Senate hearing on the pork barrel scam yesterday.

Enrile has denied dealings with alleged pork barrel scam operator Janet Lim-Napoles and has said Reyes was not authorized to handle his PDAF.

Among the documents was a letter to Commission on Audit (COA) associate commissioner Carmela Perez dated March 21, 2012, showing Enrile purportedly responding to the queries about projects implemented through the National Livelihood Development Corp., Department of Social Welfare and Development, National Agribusiness Corp. (NABCOR) and the Technology Resource Center, which his office endorsed for funding under the PDAF.

The document Cayetano presented showed that Enrile confirmed Reyes and Evangelista were authorized to sign pertinent documents related to those transactions. It was supposedly Enrile’s response to questions about the signatures of Reyes and Evangelista appearing on the documents audited.

Another document showed that as early as Feb. 8, 2008, Reyes delegated to Evangelista the authority to sign for and follow up the implementation of P25 million worth of various agribusiness livelihood projects in different municipalities using Enrile’s PDAF.

The document was a letter addressed to then agriculture secretary Arthur Yap and signed by Reyes.

In that letter, Reyes said the P25 million was funded through Special Allotment Release Order (SARO) No. ROCS 08-01347, dated Jan. 31, 2008.

“We wish to implement these projects through the National Agribusiness Corporation, an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture,” Reyes said in her letter to Yap.

In a separate letter to NABCOR president Alan Javellana dated Feb. 3, 2008, Evangelista said Enrile’s office has designated the People’s Organization for Progress and Development Foundation Inc., one of the NGOs created by Napoles, as its conduit for the implementation of the livelihood projects funded by the P25-million SARO.

The COA, in its special audit on the use of the PDAF from 2007 to 2009, found that several legislators, including Senators Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Revilla Jr., designated NGOs as conduits for the implementation of projects funded by their PDAF.

The COA questioned this because only government agencies were allowed to implement PDAF-funded projects.

It was also revealed the NGOs of Napoles failed to deliver on the projects and some of these were nonexistent.

During the hearing yesterday, former President Joseph Estrada’s social secretary Ruby Tuason testified that she delivered millions in kickbacks to Enrile in exchange for the use of his PDAF by Napoles and her NGOs.

Tuason never delivered the money directly to Enrile since she coursed everything through Reyes.

Tuason said she remembered meeting Enrile on two occasions only and they never talked about his PDAF.

Based on her recollection, Tuason said that sometime late 2004 or early 2005, she talked to Reyes about the offer of Napoles of a 40 percent kickback for the use of Enrile’s PDAF.

She said Reyes refused to meet with Napoles and only wanted to deal with her initially.

According to Tuason, she would meet Reyes at a restaurant at Serendra in Taguig City where she would deliver the alleged kickbacks of Enrile coming from Napoles.

In some instances, Tuason said that she would see the driver of Reyes on her way to the restaurant and hand him the bag containing the money.

Sometimes when the driver was not around, she would proceed to the restaurant and hand the bag of money directly to Reyes.

Tuason remembered two occasions when she was able to meet Enrile inside the restaurant.

She said Enrile never discussed his PDAF with her and he would just arrive after she and Reyes were already done with their meal.

Enrile earlier said he remembered a meeting with Tuason sometime late 2006 or early 2007 at the Mamou restaurant where they discussed a prospective property transaction.

Enrile added Reyes was not authorized to have any dealings with his PDAF.

Pressed by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV to say if she believed Enrile knew about her transactions with Reyes, Tuason replied he most likely did.

“With all these transactions, he probably has an inkling of what’s going on,” Tuason said.

Asked by Trillanes if she believed that Reyes could have acted without the knowledge of Enrile, Tuason said she believed Reyes enjoyed the full trust of her principal.

“She has a lot of powers in their office. She handles a lot of things there because she is authorized to do so. So I suppose that she was authorized. There was an authority letter saying that she is handling the PDAF,” Tuason said in Filipino. – Marvin Sy