Philippine whistleblowers
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Five Philippine senators and 23 members of the House of Representatives have allegedly made available their "pork barrel" funds to dummy non-government organisations for purported ghost projects worth 10 billion pesos (Bt7.17 billion) over the past decade
Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr topped the list of lawmakers who were said to have allowed the use of their Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF) to the scheme allegedly hatched by Janet Lim-Napoles, president and CEO of the trading firm JLN Corp, according to documents secured by the Inquirer.
Revilla gave the syndicate access to his PDAF, or “pork barrel”, to dummy NGOs formed by Napoles and registered in the Securities and Exchange Commission in 22 instances; followed by Senators Juan Ponce Enrile on 21 occasions; Jinggoy Estrada, 18 times; Ferdinand Marcos Jr, four; and Gringo Honasan, once with a small amount.
Contrary to one newspaper report, Senator Loren Legarda was not involved in the scam, said the principal whistleblower, Benhur Luy, a former Napoles employee. “There was an attempt, but I heard she was dropped because she scrutinised it and she was very keen on receipts,” Luy said.
