TRC exec in PDAF scam gets temporary state protection - Sun.Star

TECHNOLOGY Resource Center (TRC) Director General Dennis Cunanan has been given temporary coverage under the Witness Protection Program (WPP) in relation to the complaints regarding the pork barrel scam, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said Friday.

Cunanan is one of the respondents in the plunder and malversation complaints pending before the Office of the Ombudsman.

However, de Lima said Cunanan issued a sworn statement that is "essential and corroborative" to the testimonies of the whistleblowers.

He applied for WPP coverage before the filing of the first batch of plunder charges last September involving Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon "Bong" Revilla Jr. regarding the alleged misuse of PDAF from 2007 to 2009.

Cunanan debunked the senators' claims that they were not the ones who selected Janet Napoles' non-government organizations (NGOs), which implemented the projects funded by their PDAF allocation, their signatures or those of their staff/authorized representatives were forged or that they are not aware of the dealings between the dubious non-government organizations (NGOs) of Napoles and TRC.

In his 36-page sworn statement, Cunanan discussed the contents of various documents (letters of endorsement, special allotment release orders, memorandum of agreement, project summaries and proposals) showing that the senators endorsed the businesswoman's NGOs.

Cunanan's testimony is crucial, de Lima said, because he was able to get Revilla himself to confirm over the phone that the signatures on some project endorsements favoring Napoles' NGOs were his.

Enrile's former chief-of-staff Jessica "Gigi" Reyes also confirmed that she and lawyer Jose Antonio Evangelista were authorized by Enrile to sign for and follow-up the PDAF projects.

He cited incidents when Revilla and Estrada gave him a dressing down over the phone for "delaying" the projects, forcing him and his staff to work double time just to process some papers demanded by the senators.

"To us simple and lowly government employees, even just the letter of a senator or congressman following-up on a project is enough to cause undue panic and pressure upon our office since we know for a fact that senators and congressmen exercise oversight functions over our agencies and wield tremendous political power," Cunanan said.

He said some congressmen and/or their authorized representatives even go to the extent of personally "lobbying" at the TRC for the immediate release of checks to their chosen NGOs.

"Needless to state, it was because of this tremendous pressure tactics exerted by Senators Enrile, Revilla and Estrada and certain congressmen and their representatives, together with the representatives of their selected NGOs, which compelled many of us at TRC to process and approve on their PDAF-funded projects despite of our initial misgivings about the same," he said.

Apart from the opposition senators, Cunanan named Palace allies as among congressmen who diverted their PDAF to Napoles' NGOs.

They are former Cibac party-list Representative and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) Director General Joel Villanueva and ex-Muntinlupa City Representative Ruffy Biazon.

Biazon resigned as Customs commissioner last December after he was charged with malversation for allegedly receiving P1.95 million in kickbacks from Napoles in 2007. Napoles is currently detained for alleged serious illegal detention of main whistleblower Benhur Luy.

De Lima said the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is now probing Villanueva's involvement in the scam.

Cunanan served as deputy director general of then Technology Livelihood Resource Center (TLRC) from January 2004 until he was promoted to replace former director general Antonio Ortiz, also a respondent in the PDAF complaints, in January 2010.

He admitted meeting Napoles in his office sometime in 2006 or 2007 accompanied by then Transportation Assistant Secretary (now Candaba, Pampanga Mayor) Rene Manlaque.

Cunanan said Napoles introduced herself as representative of the three senators and a "host of congressmen" who supposedly picked TRC as the conduit for their pork barrel projects.

He denied benefiting from the scam even he was a co-signatory of the vouchers and checks of TRC, which reportedly released P580.85 million worth of PDAF projects of the three senators and 23 congressmen.

Cunanan has been on indefinite leave from his post since September. (Sunnex)

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