MANILA – The lawyer of businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles on Tuesday turned the tables on JLN employee Benhur Luy and accused the whistle-blower of perpetrating the alleged pork barrel scam with the help of another whistleblower. Speaking to ANC, lawyer Lorna Kapunan said Luy’s intimate knowledge of the alleged scam and his own records of the alleged payments to lawmakers showed that he was deeply involved in the scheme. She said another whistle-blower, Merlina Suñas, had already said in a newspaper interview that she organized the fake non-government organizations for the scam. Asked if Luy was inventing the facts on the alleged fake NGOs and payments to lawmakers, she said: “I am not saying anything. What I am saying is - if we follow rules on logic, whoever possesses owns. He is the one in possession of these records. Why to the last detail, the last check, the last amount, the last NGO, the last government contract, we do not know. He is on record as being quoted by one broadsheet that he forged signatures of certain senators and congressmen. Organizing NGOs the other whistleblower Suñas admits that she organized the NGOs as well.” She also stopped short of accusing Luy and Suñas of masterminding the scam. “I am not saying they are the masterminds. As a matter of act I want to know myself,” she said. Luy, a cousin and former personal assistant of Napoles, has accused the businesswoman of setting up at least 20 fake NGOs to siphon off billions of pesos in lawmakers’ pork barrel funds in exchange for a cut of the money. A Commission on Audit report earlier said at least 8 NGOs linked to Napoles received P1.9 billion in pork barrel funds from 2007-2009 alone. Napoles is currently detained at Fort Sto. Domingo in Santa Rosa, Laguna for a serious illegal detention case filed by Luy. In the interview, Kapunan said her client denied setting up 20 fake NGOs and foundations. “I do not know if she has knowledge. Right now, she is saying she does not. She did not set it up. Whether she has knowledge or not, we are in the process of ascertaining. Most certainly if they have on file all the documents of these NGOs, she is not involved. Her name is not there,” she said. Kapunan pointed out that it was Luy and Suñas who got the Napoles family household helpers, drivers and employees to sign documents to show that they are presidents and incorporators of these NGOs. “This Benhur and this Suñas went around to get their signature, saying na para sa tulong natin ito sa mga naghihirap. So they signed… they are saying that they do not know. They did not know that their names are being used by Benhur and Suñas. They were just signing papers para tumulong sa mga nangangailangan,” she said. No detention Kapunan said Luy concocted the tale of being held against his will from December 2010 to March 2013 to cover up his own theft of the Christmas bonuses of JLN employees and his own bank loans using Napoles’ account. “Sometime in December, Janet Napoles discovered that [Luy] had stolen the Christmas bonus of the employees. Apart from that, providentially during the same Christmas party, a bank official called and said: ‘Mrs. Napoles, nakakalimutan niyo ata yung inyong amortization sa 2 loans niyo.’ There was a P2.5 million loan and P2.7 million loan of Benhur. She was so startled. Nagulat siya kasi hindi naman siya nag lo-loan. And the bank official said: ‘Si Benhur po, ginamit ang account ninyo at binack to back pa yung loan na ito.’ We have that in sworn affidavit,” she said in an ANC Headstart interview. Kapunan said Luy admitted to his wrongdoing and then promised to atone by placing himself on “self-solitude” at a retreat house. “He styles himself as a neo-catechist, whatever that is, and he promised that he would literally atone for his sins and he would put himself on self-solitude so that Mrs. Napoles will not file any charges against him. The aprents were not told that is why the parents went to the NBI. The parents were not told because kahihiyan ng parents. Remember, this is a family that Mrs. Napoles helped. They're very distant relatives,” she said. Kapunan said State Prosecutor Juan Pedro Navera had already rejected the serious illegal detention case against Napoles after evaluating 17 affidavits, including five from priests and one monsignor who handled the retreat house where Luy was allegedly detained. The lawyer denied that Luy was detained against his will. She said Luy’s own sister could freely visit the retreat house, which is located somewhere in Magallanes. “The people who allegedly detained him were the priests. If we are really charged, if Janet is charged with illegal detention, it should be the priests and the monsignor and the seminarians there,” she said.
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