CAGAYAN de Oro City First District Representative Rufus Rodriguez said on Saturday that he would ask the Supreme Court to suspend the proceedings in the Ombudsman accusing him of malversation, graft, and direct bribery over the pork barrel scam involving Janette Lim-Napoles.
Rodriguez made the statement after the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) filed the third batch of pork barrel scam cases at the Office of the Ombudsman in Quezon City on Friday, August 7.
Eight other lawmakers, among them Senator Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan III and former party list representative and now Technical Education Skills and Development Authority (TESDA) Director General Joel Villanueva, were similarly charged. [READ the related story here.]
In a statement, Rodriguez said he is “filing a petition of certiorari and prohibition in the Supreme Court that will suspend the proceedings in the Ombudsman pending the remand of the complaint back to the Department of Justice (DOJ).”
Rodriguez reiterated his earlier lament that there was no due process in the crafting of the complaint against him as the DOJ did not allow him a chance to present his side.
He said the signatures supposedly his in the documents furnished to him by the Commission on Audit (COA) which form the basis of the complaint were all fake.
“When I received 18 documents from COA regarding this matter, I had all the documents examined by the NBI which came out with an official finding that all my 18 signatures in all 18 documents were forgeries,” Rodriguez said.
“I do not know Ms. Janette Lim-Napoles personally or otherwise; I have never met Ms. Janette Napoles or any of her employees personally anywhere at anytime; I never had any transaction whatsoever with Ms. Janette Napoles nor any of her employees or any NGO/person associated with her; I do not know and have never met personally any officer/functionary of any NGO associated with or owned by Ms. Janette Napoles; and have never received any amount of money from her,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez is accused of receiving P2.099 million in kickbacks from his alleged dealings with Napoles and Napoles’ controlled NGOs.
Rodriguez, who sponsored the government’s landmark legislation on the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law, is a key administration ally in the House of Representatives.
Also included in the charge sheet of the National Bureau of Investigation were La Union Representative Victor Ortega, Manila Representative Amado Bagatsing, former Abono party-list representatives Conrad Estrella III and Robert Raymund Estrella, former La Union representative Manuel Ortega, and former Zamboanga representative Isidro Real Jr.
The NBI also filed complaints against representatives of the lawmakers, heads of agencies, government employees and presidents of fake non-government organizations linked to businesswoman Janet Napoles, who has been detained due to several cases related to the scam.
Based on the complaint, these current and former lawmakers received the following kickbacks and commissions for channeling their Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) to Napoles’ bogus foundations: Honasan - P1.75 million; Bagatsing - P600,000; Estrella III - P22.675 million; C. Estrella - P45.03 million; V. Ortega - P9.58 million; Ortega - P14.35 million; Real - P3.25 million; Rodriguez - P2.099 million; Villanueva - P2.33 million.
Villanueva, a potential senatorial bet of the ruling Liberal Party in next year’s polls, is a close friend of President Benigno Aquino III. He is also facing investigation by the Ombudsman for alleged misuse of his PDAF worth P10 million in 2008.
Five respondents, Estrella III, Bagatsing, Rodriguez, Ortega, and Villanueva, also questioned the authenticity of their signatures on documents indicating the lawmakers’ endorsement of the foundations’ ghost projects.
Upon examination, the NBI Questioned Documents Division(QDD) found that in several of the questioned documents, the signatures did not match the legislators’ specimen signatures, while it was unable to arrive at a conclusion on other questioned documents.
But the NBI said the findings of the QDD are not conclusive, noting these will still be subject to the scrutiny of the Sandiganbayan in the event that the Ombudsman decides to file the criminal cases.
“In any event, malversation is also committed through negligence, in which case the signatures of the lawmakers are not necessary to prove that they allowed, through their negligence, the misappropriation and misuse of public funds entrusted to them,” the NBI said.
Since the scam broke out in mid-2013, several lawmakers and individuals have already been charged before the Ombudsman and the Sandiganbayan.
Among them were detained Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada and Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. and Aquino’s former customs chief Ruffy Biazon.
Another former Cagayan de Oro Congressman, lawyer Constantino Jaraula, was also charged earlier this year for his alleged involvement in the pork barrel scam.
Jaraula was charged with three counts each of malversation, graft and direct bribery for the alleged misuse of his P50.5 million Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) from 2004 to 2007 supposedly in exchange for P20.8-million worth of kickbacks. (With reports from Sunnex)