First witness admits forming bogus bodies for 'pork' funds
A former employee of Janet Lim-Napoles, the alleged mastermind in the 10-billion-peso (Bt$7.20 billion) pork-barrel scam in the Philippines, was the first to take the witness stand yesterday and narrated how they formed different foundations where the leg
Merlina Sunas, who worked for Napoles for about 13 years since 2000, told the committee she was among those who helped organise the foundations.
“Together with all employees of JLN, we worked together to form the foundations that would be used to transact [with and] get funds from different government agencies,” Sunas told the Senate blue ribbon committee.
In fact, Sunas said, her cousin, Nemencio Pablo Jr was even named president of one of Napoles’ foundations.
Sunas said she later apologised to her cousin for using his name without his knowledge.
She said they prepared the letter request, memorandum of agreement and other documents needed to transact with government agencies.
When asked if she knew about the sharing scheme of the funds allegedly sourced from legislators’ priority development assistance fund (PDAF) or pork-barrel funds, Sunas initially said she was not familiar with it.
But when asked again by Senate majority leader Alan Peter Cayetano, the witness said she knew about the scheme but did not know exactly where the money went.
Sunas was among the six whistle-blowers, including Benhur Luy, who were present at the hearing.
