Senate summons Ranillo, others to next hearing

MANILA, Philippines - Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) chairman Zenaida Ducut and three others will be summoned by the Senate Blue Ribbon committee after they were linked with Janet Lim Napoles in the multibillion-peso pork barrel scam.

Committee chairman  Sen. Teofisto Guingona III has ordered   subpoenas issued for Ducut, actor Mat Ranillo III, socialite Justa Tantoco and lawyer Jess Santos upon the request of Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV.

Whistle-blower Benhur Luy has identified Ducut, a former lawmaker, as among those who allegedly received commissions from Napoles for the use of their Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).

Witness Ruby Tuason, the social secretary of Joseph Estrada when he was president,  mentioned Ranillo in her affidavit submitted to the Department of Justice (DOJ), as the person who handled a P37.5- million transaction involving the PDAF of Sen. Jinggoy Estrada  in 2004.

Tuason said she acted as go-between when Estrada allegedly received a kickback of P5.7 million   from Napoles.

In her affidavit, Tuason said Estrada cancelled the transaction, and that the P5.7 million cash was returned to Napoles.

However, she found out later that the transaction was carried out through Ranillo based on the accounting records of Luy.

The records of Luy showed that a total of P11.97 million was delivered to a house at No. 1564 Mahogany St., Dasmariñas Village, Makati, which Tuason identified as belonging to her neighbor Tantoco.

Luy said over the course of their dealings, Ranillo received a Ford E-150 from Napoles, with the payment to be taken out of his commissions.

Napoles eventually wanted to get rid of Ranillo as her middleman to Estrada because she wanted to deal with a staff named Pauline Labayen, he added.

Napoles and Ranillo became entangled in a court suit after she accused him of failing to pay for the vehicle.

Luy said Ranillo submitted with his counter affidavit in the court case signed vouchers showing his transactions with Napoles.

Guingona asked Luy: “You mean to say that the documentary proof of kickbacks was filed in the court?’’

Luy replied: “Madam said: Shit, Matt Ranillo has copies of the vouchers.’’

Luy said Napoles ordered them to come up with new sets of vouchers to contradict Ranillo’s defense.

The two eventually settled the case, but that Napoles took back the vehicle from Ranillo, he added.

Appearing at the hearing, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago said Tantoco could be presumed to be an agent of Napoles based on the fact that the transaction between Napoles and Ranillo took place in her house.

Tuason said she was not sure if Tantoco, a neighbor in Dasmariñas Village, was an agent of Napoles.

In her affidavit, Tuason mentioned Santos as the contact in Malacañang that her brother, Remy Chan had found for her transactions on the P900-million Malampaya Fund scam.

Her brother, who had already passed away, later asked her if he could use her house to pick up   money for Santos.

NBI:  Ranillo ready to come out

Ranillo is ready to return from the US to “tell the truth,”  a source at the National Bureau Investigation (NBI) said yesterday.

The source, who requested anonymity, said the NBI has located Ranillo’s whereabouts in the US.

“He is already executing a draft affidavit and will submit this to the NBI,” the source said.

The source refused to divulge more information.

Ranillo, popularly known for his role as Saint Lorenzo Ruiz in the 1998 film “Lorenzo Ruiz the Saint: A Filipino,” is the son of “King and Queen of Visayan Films” Gloria Sevilla and Matt Ranillo Jr.

Ranillo is the father of Krista Ranillo, who was linked to boxing champion Manny Pacquiao, before she married to Niño Jefferson Lim, an owner of a supermarket chain in the US.

Growing list of witnesses

The DOJ yesterday admitted the need for them to be more selective in admitting state witnesses on the pork barrel and Malampaya fund scams.

Asked by Sen. Paolo Benigno Aquino IV if there were other people aside from Tuason lining up to become state witnesses, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima declined to provide any confirmation.

Aquino said the DOJ has to be very careful in evaluating the applicants for state witness, which he suspects would be plentiful because of the nature of the cases and the personalities involved.

De Lima said they are cognizant of the need to be more “choosy and circumspect” about who should be state witnesses, especially now that they feel they already have a solid case against the personalities involved in the scam.

She said the testimonies of Luy, along with that of Tuason, have already provided the government with an airtight case against the principal players of the scam.

De Lima said the emergence of Tuason only served to further strengthen their case.

“There were so many people questioning us for not having any evidence showing that the lawmakers involved in the scam personally received money, although Benhur Luy and the others already said that they have records showing where the money went and who was delivering this,” De Lima said.

She said the problem they had was that the people who witnessed the deliveries of kickbacks to the lawmakers or their representatives, such as the driver of Napoles, refused to cooperate.

Senate Blue Ribbon chairman Guingona said Tuason’s testimony not only corroborated the statements made by Luy and the other whistle-blowers but also served as “testimonial evidence.”

This is considered as the strongest mode of evidence in court, he said.

While De Lima described Tuason’s testimony as “slam dunk,” Guingona likened it to a buzzer beating three-point shot in a basketball game.

De Lima said the NBI is currently working on a third batch of cases related to the PDAF scam, which it would file before the Office of the Ombudsman as soon as it completes its action on the first batch.

The first batch of cases filed by the NBI involves 38 respondents, three of them senators.

“In the first batch, most of the 38 respondents have already filed their counter affidavits but some have asked for an extension. The NBI, as co-complainant in that first batch, has filed a manifestation and motion that it be given an opportunity to file a consolidated reply to all the counter affidavits,” De Lima said.

She said the second batch has also been filed before the Ombudsman and is now undergoing fact-finding by its field investigation office.

De Lima said the focus of all three batches was the findings of the Commission on Audit in its special audit of the use of the pork barrel fund from 2007 to 2009.

 However, De Lima gave assurance the NBI and DOJ would still investigate the years before 2007 and after 2009 and this would not be limited to the PDAF. –  Marvin Sy, Aie Balagtas See