By Catherine S Valente
Manila Times
President Benigno Aquino has directed the Department of Justice to review the P728mn fertiliser fund scam case, with a view to refiling it in light of a testimony by pork barrel scam whistleblower Benhur Luy.
Quoting Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, Palace spokesman Edwin Lacierda yesterday told reporters that the case may be reopened, but only if there is enough evidence to support it.
Lacierda said de Lima wants “to confirm first whether that’s the statement of Benhur’s lawyer.” The lawyer, Raji Mendoza, on Thursday told Manila Times editors and reporters in an exclusive interview that Luy is willing to testify on the fertiliser fund scam.
De Lima has been “instructed by the president to review the case and to check if refiling the case, is still feasible and warranted,” Lacierda said.
Mendoza said Luy is ready to tell everything he knows about the fertiliser fund scam which, according to him, was a “precursor” of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel misuse, both of which were masterminded by businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles.
Luy will reveal details of the farm inputs scam “soon” after the recent release of the Commission on Audit (COA) report on the anomaly, to which about 140 former members of the House of Representatives were linked, Mendoza said.
“The fertiliser scam is a precursor (of) the pork barrel scam. He (Luy) said JLN (Napoles’ initials) was involved. He will give his affidavit to the NBI (National Bureau of Investigation) soon,” he added.
The lawyer explained that Luy took time to reveal what he knows about the fertiliser scam because he was waiting for COA to release its report to back his allegations. The affidavit will be submitted to the NBI after which the Justice department is expected to charge Napoles before the Office of the Ombudsman.
