Jinggoy not surprised, says it was a done deal

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Jinggoy Estrada was not surprised by the grant of immunity to socialite Ruby Tuason in exchange for her testimony in the pork barrel scam.

Estrada, one of three senators accused of plunder in connection with the scam, said yesterday he expected this development because from the start he knew that he and fellow opposition Senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Ramon Revilla Jr. were the principal targets of the case.

“At the onset I expected that Mrs. Ruby Tuason would be granted immunity although she was included as one of the accused by the DOJ (Department of Justice) and the NBI (National Bureau of Investigation) and in the joint resolution earlier issued by the ombudsman to make it appear that there was a semblance of fairness in this ongoing investigation,” Estrada said in an interview over ANC.

“But we all know that this is a done deal and the only real targets of this persecution from the very beginning are the three senators,” he added.

Tuason, the former social secretary of Estrada’s father, former President and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada, was among those accused of plunder by the NBI and the DOJ in the pork barrel scam.

In her earlier testimonies, Tuason claimed that she served as the bagwoman for Senators Estrada and Enrile whenever they had transactions with alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles using their respective Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).

Tuason said that she delivered the cash kickbacks of Estrada to his office at the Senate and his residence on several occasions.

In the case of Enrile, Tuason claimed that she handed over his kickbacks to his former chief of staff Jessica Lucila “Gigi” Reyes during their lunches at a restaurant in Taguig City.

As part of the deal to have her taken in as state witness, Tuason surrendered P40 million to the government, representing what she pocketed in the pork barrel scam.

Estrada said that he had no idea how the government came up with the P40-million figure because he was convinced that Tuason took home a lot more, not only from the pork barrel scam but also the Malampaya fund scam, which also involved Napoles.

He lamented that the Senate Blue Ribbon committee chaired by Senator Teofisto Guingona III has not yet started its probe into the Malampaya fund scam where the group of Napoles supposedly got P900 million from royalties the government receives from the natural gas exploration in waters off Palawan.

“Sen. Guingona has repeatedly said that he was about to start investigating the Malampaya scam but to no avail,” he said.

Estrada maintained that he would face all the allegations against him and fight to clear his name of all the charges.

He said that he intends to disprove all the allegations made against him in court, including those coming from the person he once affectionately called Tita Ruby.

“In the unfortunate event that an information will be filed before the Sandiganbayan, I am very confident that we will be victorious in the end and Mrs. Tuason will crumble in cross-examination,” Estrada said.