Jinggoy wants to attend Senate pork scam hearing

MANILA -- Senator Jinggoy Estrada has expressed interest in attending the next hearing of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee on the pork barrel scam. Estrada said he wants to hear what Technology Resource Center (TRC) director general Dennis Cunanan, who has implicated him in the anomaly, will say when he testifies before the Senate. "Tingnan natin. That might be interesting," said Estrada, who is one of the three senators facing plunder charges before the Office of the Ombudsman in connection with the multibillion-peso pork barrel scam. He revealed that he had also wanted to attend the probe when Ruby Tuason, a former aide of his father former President Joseph "Erap" Estrada, testified. "Oo, matagal na. Yung kay Mrs. Tuason pa lang eh gusto ko na um-attend," he said. His lawyers, however, have advised him not to appear in the Senate hearings. He said he has yet to talk to his lawyers as of now. The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee has yet to announce when the next hearing would be. Justice Secretary Leila De Lima earlier said that Cunanan, who has been accepted provisionally in the Witness Protection Program, revealed that Senators Estrada and Ramon "Bong" Revilla Jr. "pressured" him via phone to release their pork barrel funds to fake non-government organizations (NGOs) of Janet Lim Napoles. Cunanan also denied the senators' claims that their signatures in documents for the release of their Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF) were forged, De Lima said. But Estrada maintained that he does not know Cunanan. He also denied that he had personally talked to him on the phone. -- Report from Ruby Tayag, dzMM