De Lima: More media men tagged in Nabcor scam

MANILA, Philippines — Former National Agribusiness Corporation officials Rhodora Mendoza and Victor Roman Cacal named other media practitioners said to have benefited from the funds scam, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said.

The new whistleblowers have  tagged broadcast journalists Erwin Tulfo and Carmelo "Melo" del Prado Magdurulang for allegedly receiving P245,535 in the form of advertising expenses from the Department of Agriculture (DA).

"Actually, hindi lang yung dalawa na nabanggit na," De Lima said Tuesday following a closed-door meeting with Mendoza and Cacal, according to a state news report.

"Wala silang sinabi how many we are talking about but they said there are others, other than the two and these are media consultants with respect to certain projects," she added.

De Lima said that the payments appeared to be made anomalously as the requirements and rules for hiring consultants were not followed.

"They said there was no bidding. That is supposed to be the subject of the bidding. This does not fall under the bidding exception and I think there was a memorandum of agreement but there are other requirements not complied with," she said, citing testimonies of the former Nabcor officials.

Mendoza and Cacal, however, were unable to say whether the money given to the media men were for advertising projects or consultancy.

De Lima also said that the two Nabcor officials did not include media payoffs in their sworn statement submitted to the Department of Justice as they applied to become state witnesses.

Previous reports also noted that the two identified a prominent journalist who received P2 million from the DA as payoff.

Nabcor, a state-owned company, was said to be a conduit for P5 billion in government funds as part of the scam allegedly masterminded by businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles.

Mendoza and Cacal claimed that heads of agencies signed checks for the release of money for foundations identified with Napoles.