Napoles controls fake NGOs, witness insists at Sandiganbayan

Napoles' former employee Marina Sula said in her testimony before the anti-graft court that it was Napoles who gave the money to be used as initial deposits in order to open bank accounts in the names of the NGOs.

 

Sula explained that a bank certificate is one of the requirements before an NGO gets registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

 

Sula said that in 2003, the required minimum bank account balance of an NGO before its registration application was approved by the SEC was P100,000. In 2004, the required balance was increased to P2 million and in 2006 was lowered to P1 million.

 

“Siya (Napoles) po ang nagbibigay ng pera sa pag-open ng bank accounts ng mga NGOs...required po kasi ng SEC ang bank certificate bago ka makapag-register ng NGO,” Sula told the court.

 

Sula said there were a total of 20 NGOs which she personally registered with the SEC upon instruction of Napoles.

 

“Lahat po iyan ay nairehistro ko sa utos ni Madam Janet-Lim Napoles,” Sula said.

 

Sula even pointed to Napoles who was present during the hearing as the one who instructed her to register the NGOs.

 

Sula said it was also Napoles chose the bank branches where the accounts of the NGOs will be opened.

 

She said most of the bank accounts were opened at Metro Bank and Land Bank, because Napoles allegedly has manager friends in these banks.

 

 

“Karamihan sa mga bank accounts (of NGOs) ay inopen namin sa Metro Bank. Madali kasi mag-open doon dahil sa kaibigan ni Madam Janet Napoles na si Minnie Villanueve, siya ang nilalapitan namin doon,” Sula said.

 

Sula specifically mentioned Metrobank branches in Tomas Pinpin, Jose Abad Santos and Magdalena all in Manila, as the branches were the bank accounts were opened.

 

“Kasi diyan po sa mga branch na yan na-assign si Minnie Villanueva bago siya nag-resign at naging employee ni Madam Napoles,” Sula said.

 

Sula also said some of the accounts were opened in Land Bank Greenhills branch where Napoles was also friends with the manager.  She, however, was not able to name the said manager.

 

Sula said she worked as an employee of Napoles’ Jo-Chris Trading from 1997 to 2004 and of JLN Corporation from 2005 to 2013.

 

During the hearing Sula also presented a red notebook, where she said all her daily work activities from January to August 2013 were logged.

 

“Naka-log po diyan kung saan niya (Napoles) ako pinapapunta,kagaya sa BIR office, sa SEC, municipal hall...Naka-log din po diyan yung mga daily transactions ng ilang NGOs,” Sula said.

 

She said that since 2002, as required by Napoles, she has been keeping notebooks where she used to log her daily activities. She, however, said that all these notebooks, except for one, were ordered shredded by Napoles together with some other documents when the pork barrel scam started to reach the attention of the media.

 

Atty. Leigh Vhon Santos, an investigator of the Anti-Money Laundering Council had earlier testified in another branch of Sandiganbayan that Napoles has direct control over the NGOs linked in the pork scam as she signed and confirmed withdrawal slips authorizing Benhur Luy and the other whistleblowers to withdraw huge amounts of money from the NGOs’ bank accounts.

 

Napoles denied Santos’ testimony.

 

The Napoles camp has repeatedly pointed out that it was the whistleblowers who benefitted from the pork scam as it was to their bank accounts as presidents of the NGOs where the PDAF of the lawmakers were deposited.  — ELR, GMA News