UCPB: No record of PDAF scam whistleblowers' supposed accounts

MANILA, Philippines — The efforts of former Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. to pry into the bank transactions of Benhur Luy and the other pork scam whistleblowers bore no fruit, at least with respect to one banking institution.

 

In a manifestation submitted to the Sandiganbayan First Division, the United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) Legal Services Group informed the court that “UCPB has no records of any documents covering the period from 2006 to 2010 pertaining to the accounts specified in the Request for Issuance of Subpoena”.

 

Revilla, in his Request for Issuance of Subpoena filed on May 8, urged the First Division to compel the representatives of UCPB and seven other banks to bring before the courts any “bank records, transactions and year-end balances” of Luy, his brother Arthur and their mother Gertrudes.

 

Revilla also sought the submission of the bank records and transactions of two other pork scam whistleblowers Marina Sula and Merlina Suñas, former employees of businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, the alleged brains of the scam.

 

In its manifestation, the UCBP said its has no record of six Luy bank accounts that Revilla enumerated in his request.

 

The UCBP also said it has no records of one account each of Arthur, Gertrudes, Sula and Suñas, specified in Revilla's request.

Revilla has also sought the production of the bank records of Luy, Arthur, Gertrudes, Sula and Suñas that he said are with the Metropolitan Bank and Trust Company (Metro Bank), Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) and Banco De Oro Unibank Inc. (BDO), Metrobank Card Corporation, Citi Bank, Land Bank of the Philippines and Philippine Savings Bank.

 

The other banks have yet to file their comment on Revilla's request.

 

Revilla is seeking the production of the whistleblowers' bank records in preparation for the start of the trial of his plunder case on June 1.

 

The former senator is facing plunder before the First Division in connection with alleged misuse of his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel during his term as a senator.

 

He is accused of receiving P224.512-million worth of kickbacks from Napoles for supposedly allocating portions of his PDAF to the latter's bogus non-government organizations (NGOs).

 

Napoles' camp had earlier claimed that it was the whistleblowers who truly benefitted from the scam as it was to their bank accounts that the PDAF allocation of several lawmakers were deposited.

 

Luy, Sula, Suñas and the other whistleblowers were named as presidents or incorporators of the NGOs allegedly chosen by the lawmakers for the implementation of their PDAF-funded “ghost” projects.