Senate to resume probe on Malampaya scam

MANILA, Philippines - The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee will continue next week its investigation of the alleged Malampaya scam.

An advisory from the office of Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, committee chair, said the hearing will be held on December 1.

Invited as resource persons are Commission on Audit Chair Grace Pulido Tan and Assistant Commissioner Susan Garcia.

The Malampaya Fund represents the royalties of the government from the natural gas exploration project in Palawan.

The whistle-blowers in the pork barrel scam, most of whom were former employees of businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles led by Benhur Luy, revealed that she got hold of around P900 million of the Malampaya Fund sometime in 2009.

It was revealed by the whistle-blowers that the signatures of several mayors were forged by the employees of Napoles to make it appear that they received the funds when in fact these went to the bogus foundations of Napoles.

In her affidavit made public by the Blue Ribbon Committee, Napoles pointed to socialite Ruby Tuason, who is turning state witness in the pork barrel scam, as the Palace conduit in the alleged release of P900 million from the Malampaya Fund in November 2009 that was used for the election campaign in 2010.

Tuason, the social secretary of former president and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada, testified before the Senate that her brother used her house in Makati City as a pickup point for kickbacks from the transactions on the Malampaya Fund.