Miriam denounces inclusion in Luy’s ‘pork’ list

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago yesterday backtracked on her previous statement about the “credibility” of Benhur Luy’s list of legislators who had dealings with alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles.

Santiago changed her mind after her name was included in the Luy list, which indicated that she received a P2.5-million rebate for a P10-million transaction in 2005 that supposedly went to the group of Napoles.

She denounced her inclusion in the list.

“For the record, I denounce as false the allegations against me drawn from the Luy list.  All the documents are fake. I have no clue about the alleged details, which are all falsified or fictitious,” Santiago said.

“I will confront Luy and Napoles if they appear at the Senate. Someone has made money by using my name, and I will make that person pay, big time,” she added.

Responding to a news report quoting Luy’s lawyer Raji Mendoza supposedly disclaiming the list that was contained in a hard disk drive of the pork barrel scam whistle-blower, Santiago said the list was likely manufactured and distributed by a criminal syndicate.

“I am willing to overlook the mistake on the part of the broadsheet on the basis of saying that journalism is literature in a hurry,” the senator said. “But if the list is unauthenticated, what is its paternity? Notably, in today’s newspapers, Lacson is quoted as saying that I am not in the list but I am in the Luy list. How could Lacson have known this except by participating in faking and then disseminating the Luy list? As Alice in Wonderland said: this is curiouser and curiouser.”  

Santiago had earlier called for a Senate hearing on the list of Luy, which reportedly contains the names of some 200 individuals, including incumbent and former legislators as well as Cabinet members.

She said that only the Luy list would be “definitive and substantiated,” as compared to what she called “spurious documents inadmissible in evidence” claimed by Napoles, former senator and now rehabilitation czar Panfilo Lacson and Sandra Cam.

“I am pushing to get the list of Luy. I understand that the Luy list is substantiated by documents and details,” she said.

But as it turned out, Santiago’s name did not appear in the list held by Lacson.

In the Luy list, she was among the 15 incumbent senators who allegedly had transactions with Napoles.

“My name has been used in vain by the Napoles Gang of thieves. I thought that if the Luy list included documents, they would first be authenticated before publication. Silly me,” Santiago said.