Chiefs of staff of senators and congressmen personally got cash from the office of businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles as part of their cut from the pork barrel scam, whistle-blower Benhur Luy said Thursday.
Luy, a second cousin and former aide of Napoles, revealed that some of the lawmakers' chiefs of staff would sometimes accompany staff of JLN Group of Companies to withdraw money from Napoles' accounts.
"Cash po. Meron ho MC (manager's check) pero hindi nakapangalan sa senador. In the Lower House, it was fund transfers. They gave account numbers and we credited the money to their account," he said.
Luy said he never personally saw a senator or congressman receive the cash or checks but noted that he was sometimes asked to prepare the cash in their office, sometimes as much as P20 million.
"To the senators, it is the chiefs of staff who go to the office. There are instances when Mrs. Napoles asked us to prepare money, say P20 million, and say she is talking to a senator and she will bring the money," he said.
"It is the chief of staff who gets the money or sometimes they accompany us to the bank to withdraw the money," he added.
Some of the chiefs of staff got as much as 1% of the pork barrel in kickbacks, depending on how much money Napoles was willing to disburse, Luy said.
He also said their office at Discovery Suites had as much as P75 million in cash withdrawn from the different bank accounts of the foundations set up to receive the pork barrel funds.
Luy said Napoles would always pay 50% of the cut of the lawmakers once the proposed ghost project has been listed by the Department of Budget and Management. The remaining 50% cut of the lawmakers would be released once Napoles got the lawmakers' special allotment release orders.
He said Napoles also gave kickbacks to officials in several line agencies linked to the scam including the National Agribusiness Corp. (Nabcor) and Zamboanga del Norte College Rubber Estates Corp. (ZREC) of the Department of Agriculture; Technology Resources Center (TRC) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST); and, National Livelihood Development Corp. (NLDC) of Land Bank of the Philippines.
Luy has accused Napoles of setting up fake non-governmental organizations to act as conduits of lawmakers' pork barrel funds in exchange for a cut of the funds. An estimated P10 billion in lawmakers' funds were reportedly misused in the scam and pocketed by Napoles and corrupt government officials.
The Supreme Court recently issued a temporary restraining order stopping the Department of Budget and Management from releasing the remaining priority development assistance funds of lawmakers for 2013.
source: www.abs-cbnnews.com
