Napoles: Whistleblower in pork barrel scam habitual drug user

MANILA, Philippines - Businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, the alleged mastermind behind the P10-billion pork barrel scam, denied once more involvement in the controversy, calling the accusations against her as "blackmail and lies."

In a statement read by her lawyer Bruce Rivera, Napoles denied involvement in the alleged diversion of pork barrel funds of several lawmakers into dummy non-government organizations (NGOs) purportedly for ghost projects.

“I have nothing to do with the so-called misuse of senators’ and congressmen's PDAF using bogus NGOs as alleged in the series of Inquirer reports,” Napoles said in her statement read by Rivera in a televised press briefing on Wednesday.

Napoles also tried to discredited Benhur Luy, her former personal assistant in her trading company JLN Corporation, who has emerged as a whistle-blower in the alleged scandal.

"I was supposed to charge him in court for qualified theft but my brothers tried to intervene and Benhur himself wrote a letter of apology and volunteered to undergo a spiritual retreat to reform himself who by his own admission is a habitual user of the illegal drug ecstasy. He has his own gender confusion and sexual indiscretions,” she said.

During the press briefing, Rivera showed pictures of Luy allegedly high on drugs.

The embattled businesswoman claimed that while Luy was on retreat, Luy’s family talked to lawyer Levito Baligod to "hatch a plan to extort money from me."

"It is clear that the extortion and blackmail is behind the series of articles which have appeared in the Inquirer and was no doubt fed by several unidentified NBI agents who were wittingly being used by Atty. Baligod and the Luy family for their own selfish motives,” she said.

Related story: Napoles claims P300-M extort try

Five senators have been tagged in the scandal for allegedly using their Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel to fund the ghost projects solicited by the bogus NGOs through forgery, falsification and bribery.

These five lawmakers were identified in reports as Senators Ramon Revilla, Jr., Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., and Gregorio Honasan.

The senators have denied the allegations and urged for an investigation on the scandal.