COA confirms 10 Napoles NGOs got P2-B 'pork'

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Audit (COA) confirmed on Friday that some non-government organizations (NGOs) linked to Janet Lim Napoles received the pork barrel of lawmakers from 2007 to 2009.

The COA bared its findings on a special audit which showed that the pork barrel of 12 senators and about 180 congressmen from 2007 to 2009 funded 82 NGOs.

Pulido-Tan said 10 of these NGOs which received P2.157 billion are presently linked to Janet Lim Napoles.

The embattled businesswoman has been embroiled into the reported pork barrel scam, wherein lawmakers' pork barrel worth P10 billion were channeled to bogus NGOs and ghost projects.

The COA report said that of the 82 NGOs covered by the agency's audit, many had dubious addresses, with some were traced to shanties or just the home addresses of some members.

Around P123 million of funds were also used to pay salaries of workers in NGOs, according to the COA report.

There were also cases when the list of beneficiaries of the NGOs' projects were taken from the list of those who took the board exam.

Earlier this week, a Makati court ordered the arrest of Napoles and her brother Reynald "Jojo" Lim, for serious illegal detention.

The case involved the illegal detention of the Benhur Luy, the whistleblower in the alleged diversion of pork barrel funds of several lawmakers.

Luy claimed he was detained by the siblings for three months in a condo unit at Bonifacio Global City in Taguig last year.