Rappler :MANILA, Philippines – Six months after it received the plunder complaint against 3 senators, alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles, and 34 other government officials and private individuals, the Office of the Ombudsman announced on Tuesday, April 1, the filing of charges against them before the Sandiganbayan. Assistant Ombudsman Asryman Rafanan said they found probable cause to file plunder cases against senators Ramon Bong Revilla Jr, Juan Ponce Enrile, and Jinggoy Estrada, Napoles, and others named by the justice department as having taken part in the misuse of lawmakers Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) from 2007 to 2009. The 3 senators clearly took undue advantage of their positions, Rafanan said in a press briefing, about an hour after the Senate blue ribbon committee also recommended the filing of plunder charges against the 3 senators for having planned, conspired, and benefitted from public money. The Ombudsman also found probable cause to charge for plunder Enriles chief of staff Jessica Lucila Gigi Reyes, self-confessed bagman Ruby Tuazon, Napoles brother Ronald Lim, and Napoles driver-bodyguard John Raymond de Asis, who was named president of the Kaupdanan para sa Magsasaka Foundation Incorporation, one of the dummy organizations used in the scam. The multi-billion-peso scam is the biggest corruption scandal in recent Philippine history. The lawmakers are accused of siphoning off their pork barrel funds, coursed through government agencies, to Napoles’ fake non-governmental organizations in exchange for kickbacks. (READ: Pork tales and Navigating the PDAF scam affidavits) The charges announced on Tuesday were only for those named in the first batch of PDAF-related complaints. A second batch, with 34 respondents, was filed by the justice department with the Ombudsman in November 2013. Rafanan said Revilla got the biggest kickback worth P517 million, followed by Enrile with P345 million, and for Estrada with P278 million. Earlier, Enrile told the Ombudsman that the PDAF-related allegations against him were baseless and were mere urban legend. Estrada, for his part, said opposition senators like them were being singled out, and the charges against them were meant to demolish their chances in the 2016 elections. Revilla, meanwhile, had asked the Ombudsman to suspend its probe, but the Ombudsman rejected the plea. – Rappler
Posted on: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 09:08:57 +0000
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