Luy: No rift with Baligod

MANILA, Philippines - Lead pork scam whistleblower Benhur Luy on Thursday denied that there is a rift between him and his former lead counsel, lawyer Levito Baligod.

"Hindi po kami nag-aaway ni Attorney Baligod. Yun lang po ang reason ko, time," Luy told Sen. Francis Escudero at the resumption of the pork barrel scam hearing at the Senate.

Escudero was inquiring from Luy why he dropped Baligod from his legal team. The senator also cited newspaper reports that Luy and Baligod had a falling out because of a disagreement on who should they implicate in the pork barrel scam.

Luy denied the report and said that he dropped Baligod because his former legal counsel could not properly handle the several charges filed against him by the camp of businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles.

He said that Baligod could not give him updates on the cases and the lawyer had cited that he is also focusing on several "advocacies."

"Nagdedepende ako sa lawyer ko. Gusto kong malaman what is the update, kinasuhan ako ni Miss Napoles ng qualified theft, I do not know the status. I have numerous cases na ikinaso sa akin at the same time, the primary case na kami ang nagkaso," he said, referring to the serious illegal detention case he filed against Napoles.

He also said that Baligod is not always with him whenever he executes statements in the Department of Justice and the National Bureau of Investigation.

Aside from the qualified theft cases, he said he is also facing several counts of oral defamation charges filed by the relatives of Napoles.

Luy, who is under the justice department's Witness Protection Program, is now being represented by three lawyers in the pork barrel case.

Luy has accused Napoles of masterminding the multi-billion peso pork barrel scam. He also implicated Senators Jinggoy Estrada, Bong Revilla and Juan Ponce Enrile in the scam.