‘NBI, Luy should explain file deletions’

MANILA, Philippines - The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and pork barrel scam whistle-blower Benhur Luy should explain the deleted files in Luy’s computer records, a senior administration lawmaker said yesterday.

“The deletions could only be explained by the NBI or Luy,” Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr. of Dasmariñas City in Cavite said.

He said since Luy’s hard disk drive was turned over to the NBI, administration critics might claim that the agency made the deletions to hide the names of officials allegedly involved in the pork barrel scam.

He said if it is true that the hard drive that came into its possession already contained deleted files, the NBI should get Luy to explain such deletions.

Either way, he added that the administration might become collateral damage in this issue, as critics would accuse it of making the files disappear.

In any case, Barzaga said some of the deleted contents of Luy’s hard drive indicated that the camp of alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles and her staff, including the whistle-blowers, fabricated certain documents to support the flow of funds to their bogus foundations.

He said the funding requests addressed to President Aquino, Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. and Budget Secretary Florencio Abad were obvious fabrications, along with those of Senators Franklin Drilon and Ralph Recto, and former senator Francis Pangilinan.

Barzaga recalled that there were admissions from Luy and other whistle-blowers that they manufactured funding requests and endorsements and forged the signatures of certain lawmakers and local government officials to get pork barrel funds released to their foundations.

However, he pointed out that many entries in the Luy files relating to the pork barrel funds of certain lawmakers are credible.

He added that reports of the Commission on Audit on the use of the funds give credence to such entries.

Congressmen also sought yesterday an explanation from the Department of Justice (DOJ) on the deleted files in the hard drive of Luy, especially the reported messages to and from top Malacañang officials.

Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, leader of the independent bloc in the House of Representatives, said there is a need to clarify before the public reports of erasures in the hard drive that is said to contain a list of government officials involved in the pork barrel fund scam.

“For the sake of transparency, I hope an explanation is forthcoming on what are these erasures all about, and why they were erased and by whom, and on whose orders – if any – simply because the public must know,” Romualdez said.

Barzaga said Luy would be “the best person to affirm whether or not erasures, retrieval of the erased files, and files that cannot be accessed were made in his hard disc drive.”

He also said he found it hard to believe that the President and Ochoa would be writing letters to Budget Secretary Abad to follow up fund releases.

“A simple call or a text message to Secretary Abad by the President would be more than sufficient to follow up the request,” Barzaga said.