Jinggoy: Ex-aide won’t betray me

MANILA, Philippines - Opposition Sen. Jing-goy Estrada expressed confidence yesterday that his former appointments secretary Pauline Labayen will not testify against him in connection with kickbacks he allegedly received from 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 do with this. She was just implicated by the whistle-blowers. They have no proof whatsoever,” Estrada added, referring to Labayen, who had worked as his secretary since he was mayor of San Juan.

Labayen is among the 34 personalities charged in the plunder complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman in connection with the pork barrel scam or the misuse of the Priority Development Assitance Fund of lawmakers.

Estrada said he has not talked to Labayen since she resigned from the Senate at the height of the pork barrel controversy last year.

He also debunked the claims of Ruby Tuason, former social secretary of ex-president and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada, who said in her affidavit that it was Labayen who received kickbacks from the camp of pork barrel scam operator Janet Lim-Napoles in behalf of the senator.

“That’s not true, That’s very inconsistent,” Estrada said.

Estrada branded as a “bluff” the information floated by the lawyers of the whistle-blowers led by Benhur Luy before the media in a bid to further fan the trial by publicity that is now being waged against him and his colleagues, Senate minority leader Juan Ponce Enrile and Ramon Bong Revilla Jr.

Admitting that he is getting tired of all the unfounded accusations hurled against him and his family, Estrada challenged the Ombudsman to just file the charges against them in the Sandiganbayan.

Estrada also appealed to Justice Secretary Leila de Lima not to influence the Ombudsman over the pork barrel scam case, adding that he still believes in the integrity of the courts.

De Lima had earlier dubbed Tuason’s affidavit as a “slam dunk evidence.”

On the eve of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee’s hearing on the pork barrel scam today, Estrada appealed to his colleagues to be circumspect during their participation in the Senate Blue Ribbon hearings.

He echoed the words of former US president Thomas Jefferson. “‘A politician looks forward to the next election. But a statesman looks forward to the next generation.’ I hope they become statesmen,” Estrada said.

Estrada is not attending the Senate hearing, which he thinks will just be another zarzuela where the whistle-blowers are coached to testify what the government wanted them to say.

In the counter-affidavit Estrada filed last month before the Ombudsman, the senator debunked claims by Luy and other whistle-blowers, who tagged Labayen as the one who supposedly received kickbacks in the senator’s behalf.

Estrada decried the grand conspiracy to pin him and his two colleagues down for plunder.

“There is absolutely no support for the allegation that Ms. 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.

Estrada found Luy’s ledger as “suspicious” since there were loopholes in the witness’ claims.

He decried attacks not just against him, but also members of his Senate staff, in a bid to pin him down on the plunder charges.

Estrada maintained that he had not authorized any member of his staff to “follow up, supervise, sign and act in my behalf to ensure the proper and timely implementation of these projects.”

Spare my mom

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

“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 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.

He also pitied socialite Justa Tantoco, who was also implicated by Tuason in the controversy.

“She is a close friend of my mother. She has nothing to with this. I do not know why her name cropped up in her (Tuason’s) affidavit,” Estrada said.

Estrada also reiterated that he has never dealt with actor Matt Ranillo, whom Tuason claimed to have delivered kickbacks at Tantoco’s house inside the posh Dasmariñas Village in Makati City sometime in 2004.

Estrada said he sees a pattern to destroy him as well as the families of his “co-accused,” noting the black propaganda waged against the elder Sen. Ramon Revilla Sr., father of Sen. Ramon Jr.

The attacks came after Revilla Jr. accused, in his privilege speech, the Palace of meddling in the impeachment trial of former chief justice Renato Corona.

Revilla implicated President Aquino and his two close allies, Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel Roxas II and Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, in efforts to influence senators regarding the verdict against Corona during the impeachment proceedings in 2012.

In his counter-affidavit, Estrada sought the dismissal for lack of merit the plunder complaint filed by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) where he was charged along with Napoles and her minions at the JNL Corp. and the whistle-blowers led by Luy.

“None of the acts or omissions attributed to me constitute criminal acts. I am therefore being proceeded against under a general theory of conspiracy, easily charged and exciting to hear, but impossible to substantiate,” he said in his motion filed before the Ombudsman.

“I cannot be held accountable for the acts of others, as mere casual relation between the acts attributed to me with the crimes supposedly committed by other respondents is insufficient to support a finding of conspiracy,” he said.

Erap reacts

Manila Mayor Estrada said yesterday that a well-funded group is out to destroy the opposition.

In an interview with The STAR, Estrada said the effort now includes dragging his wife Loi into the scam involving the pork barrel of lawmakers, where his son Senator Estrada was among those charged with plunder.

Asked for his comment on the testimony today in the Senate hearing of his former social secretary Tuason who had offered to be a state witness in the pork barrel scam, Estrada said the well-funded group‘s main objective is to destroy all possible contenders in the 2016 presidential elections.

Jinggoy is being viewed as a strong contender for vice president under the opposition United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) before he was implicated in the pork barrel scam.

Another possible presidential contender in the 2016 elections is Senator Revilla Jr. who is also charged with plunder along with Senator Juan Ponce Enrile in connection with the pork barrel scam.

Estrada said the administration’s Liberal Party (LP) knows that the candidates that they are grooming for the 2016 elections do not stand any chance “because they would self-destruct.”

“All opposition leaders are now the target of a demolition job. They are trying to destroy them because they know that the people they are grooming to be their candidates in 2016 are self-destructing. LP candidates are self-destructing,” he said.

Estrada said he does not believe that his wife Loi cannot be involved in the pork barrel scam.

“She is a very religious person. They are conditioning the minds of the public again like what they did to me. There is money released to destroy our family. Ruby Tuason is a paid witness to destroy the Estradas, like what Clarissa Ocampo did,” Estrada said.

Ocampo, a former bank executive, had testified against then President Estrada in his plunder case.

Estrada said he would wait for Tuason’s statement in the Senate hearing today.

“The truth will come out,” Estrada said.

Binay and De Lima

Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said that Vice President Jejomar Binay and Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, who were at loggerheads over the testimony of pork barrel scam witness Tuason, have apparently sorted things out.

“As far as I know, they had an opportunity to talk, VP Binay and Secretary de Lima, and there were explanations made regarding each other’s position and understanding on this issue,” Coloma said, recalling the Cabinet meeting that Binay and De Lima attended the whole day Tuesday.

Coloma did not give any more details.

“All I know is that they talked to each other, that both gave each other enlightenment, and it appears that the discussion was quite good,” Coloma recounted.

He clarified, on the other hand, that he was not privy to the talks since he only saw the two officials, who are both members of President Aquino’s Cabinet.

“If possible, let’s just leave it at that. I just saw them. It is but natural in any meeting like that because we are all friends and we all know each other, for us to talk and exchange views. We don’t need other occasions or any more formal gatherings,” he said.

The bickering started when Binay dismissed as a “dud” the testimony of Tuason, who admitted that she delivered pork barrel kickbacks to Senators Estrada and Enrile who are both political allies of the vice president.

De Lima had earlier declared Tuason’s testimony as incriminating, even describing it as “slam dunk evidence” against those involved in the pork barrel scam.

“The Vice President is entitled to his opinion and I respect his opinion. But it saddens me that instead of encouraging us to further strengthen evidence, he should encourage us to pursue what we are doing now,” De Lima said.

She found Binay’s views puzzling because government officials should encourage state investigators to pursue the case. – With Jose Rodel Clapano, Delon Porcalla