BACKED with documents, two incumbent congressmen tagged in the P10-billion pork barrel scam on Wednesday said they are willing to cooperate with the Department of Justice (DOJ) to clear their names on the controversy.
Representatives Rufus Rodriguez (Cagayan de Oro) and Isidro Ungab (Davao City) said they will submit themselves to the DOJ and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), if needed.
"We would certainly lend our support to give a free hand to the Department of Justice and NBI to conduct their own investigation. In my case, I have never known the Napoles group," Rodriguez said in an ambush interview.
"As I have said, my conscience is clear. Since I kept the records of all my projects, wala akong problema. I can compare my records with their (NBI) records," Ungab, chairman of the House committee on appropriations and a Liberal Party (LP) stalwart, said.
Ungab said he is confident that his PDAF went to NGOs accredited by the Department of Agriculture as he personally saw its implementation in his district.
"I have my own control. I have my list of beneficiaries. I have my pictures. They are warm bodies because I saw the distribution," he said.
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima earlier said that they are set to file "in a few weeks" the appropriate charges against lawmakers tagged in the scam wherein businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles allegedly channeled priority development assistance funds (PDAF) to bogus non-government organizations.
De Lima said they were able to confirm the involvement of "some lawmakers" named in the list of 23 congressmen and give senators whose pork was accessed by Napoles.
At the hearing on the budget of the DOJ, de Lima refused to name the lawmakers, which may face criminal raps over the pork barrel controversy.
"Hindi fair na merong mapapangalanan tapos meron pa lang hindi pa kasama. We will only announce that list when we are ready to file the charges and we will endorse the report of the NBI to the Ombudsman with our recommendations and the Ombudsman will act accordingly," de Lima said.
Meanwhile, 1-BAP party-list Representative Silvestre Bello told reporters in the weekly briefing of the House minority bloc that he saw Napoles once inside the premises of Malacañang during the administration of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Pressed by reporters, Bello said she saw Napoles "just one time." "I saw Napoles but I did not get the opportunity to meet her. She just happened to pass by in Malacañang back then. But I didn't even know that she was that Napoles," he said.
Bello was a former justice secretary and the government's chief negotiator for peace talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines - New People's Army - National Democratic Front. (Kathrina Alvarez/Sunnex)