Jinggoy confident ex-secretary won't testify against him

MANILA, Philippines - Opposition Sen. Jinggoy Estrada on Wednesday expressed confidence that his former appointments secretary, Pauline Labayen, will not testify against him on allegations that he pocketed part of his pork barrel funds from 2007 to 2010.

“I am confident that she will not turn her back against me,”  Estrada said in an interview. “She has nothing to with his. She was just implicated by the whistleblowers. They have no proof whatsoever.”

Labayen, who has been with Estrada since he was mayor of San Juan City, is among the 34 personalities tagged in the plunder complaint before the Office Ombudsman in connection with the pork barrel fund scam.

Estrada said that the information being floated to the media by the lawyers of the pork barrel scam whistleblowers led by Benhur Luy is just a "bluff" and part of the "trial by publicity" against him and the other senators charged with plunder -- Juan Ponce Enrile and Ramon "Bong" Revilla Jr.

Estrada, said that he is already getting tired of being hit by unfounded accusations. He challenged the Ombudsman to just file the charges against him and the other accused in the plunder charge at the Sandiganbayan.

“They should just file the case if they want,” he said.

Ruby Tuason, the government's new witness in the pork barrel scam, will appear before the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee in the ongoing congressional inquiry into the pork barrel scam, which will resume on Thursday.

“I think that is already scripted, nag-usap na sila ni Benhur, nag-tally-tally na sila ng figures," Estrada said, referring to the meeting between Tuason and Luy.

"Palagay ko yung ibang senador nakipag-coordinate na roon sa ibang whistleblowers, sa witness mismo. The hearing tomorrow (Thursday) will again depict us in a bad light,” Estrada said.

No proof

Estrada debunked claims by the whistleblowers, who tagged Labayen as the one who supposedly received the senator’s kickbacks in his behalf.

The senator defended Labayen as shown in the counter-affidavit that he filed last month before the Office of the Ombudsman in connection with the plunder complaint.

Estrada decried the alleged grand conspiracy to pin him down for plunder.

“There is absolutely no support for the allegation that Miss Labayen actually received monies from Ms. Napoles or any person associated with her or the NGOs Ms. Napoles supposedly owned and/or controlled,” the senator said in his counter-affidavit.

Estrada found Luy’s ledger as “suspicious,” citing loopholes in the witness’ claims.

“By the way, if one tallies the amounts supposedly released to Ms. Labayen, the same would not equal or exceed the P 50-million threshold for the crime of plunder,” the senator said.

Estrada said he sees the manipulative hands of government operators to “attribute the actions of those strangers to me to force the claim that I supposedly committed plunder.”

He decried attacks not just against him, but also to the members of his staff at the Senate, in a bid to pin him down on the plunder charges. He also slammed the presentation of “irrelevant documents” on the purported use of pork barrel funds.

Estrada batted that there is no probable cause to hold him or even Labayen for plunder.

He maintained that he had not authorized any member of his staff regarding his pork barrel allocations.

He argued that the choice of non-government organizations (NGOs) as partner with the implementing agency does not constitutes plunder.

Spare Loi

Estrada also cried foul over reports dragging his mother, former Sen. Loi Estrada, into the alleged pork barrel fund misuse.

“Why are they putting these out all now? Is it due to Mrs. (Ruby) Tuason’s decision to come out? I think the timing is very, very suspicious,” Estrada said.

The senator said his mother felt bad about the news, linking her to the alleged pork barrel fund misuse. “She feels so upset,” he said, pointing out that his mother was even reluctant to join politics in the first place.

“This might be one of their plans to again pin me down. But I still have faith, I'm still confident that the truth will set us free,” he said.

Estrada said he sees a pattern to destroy him as well as the families of his “co-accused”, noting that the black propaganda was waged against the elder Sen. Ramon Revilla Sr. after the latter’s namesake and son, accused the Palace of meddling in the impeachment trial of deposed chief justice Renato Corona.

In his privilege speech, Revilla alleged that President Aquino and his two close allies, Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas and Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, tried to influence the Senate's verdict on Corona during the 2012 impeachment proceedings.