By ELLEN TORDESILLAS
SORRY, but I don’t share the euphoria of Sen. TG Guingona, chair of the Blue Ribbon Committee, over the testimony of Ruby Tuason in the Senate yesterday.
After the hearing Guingona enthused: “A three-point shot na buzzer beater na, winning shot pa.”
Haaaah?
Sure, Tuason detailed her role as “commissioner” in the anomalous operation of Janet Napoles with Senators Juan Ponce-Enrile and Jinggoy Estrada using the Priority Development Assistant Fund allotted for small-scale projects in poor communities. But except for some details, all that she said were already revealed by whistleblowers Ben Hur Luy, Merlina Suñas, Arthur Luy, Gertrudes K. Luy, Annabelle Luy, and Nova Batal Macalintal.
Laywer Harry Roque noted that during the hearing, “ Tuason kept on relying on Ben Hur’s records.”
Roque said Tuason’s testimony “ bolsters my position that her testimony is not indispensable and that the testimony of Ben Hur Luy et al are sufficient. Worse, she could not recall how much she delivered which could have been her new information.”
Roque further said: “Thus far, she has not said anything to make me change my position that she should spend the rest of her life in jail with her co-conspirators.”
Sen. Sonny Angara hailed Tuason for the “sacrifice” for offering to return her commission of P40 million form the anomalous transactions.
Inday Espina-Varona of Change.Org posted in Facebook: “Dear Sonny Angara, please do not insult the people by describing Ruby Tuason’s offer to pay back her share of thievery as a ‘sacrifice’. And if she is not liquid, it is not the people’s fault, no? “
Tuason said she got five percent of the amount she brokered. That means she participated in depriving the Filipino people of P800 million that would have been used for projects that would have helped improved their lives like health centers, school buildings, farm-to-market roads.
Tuason is included with Gloria Arroyo among those charged with plunder for the misuse of the P900 million Malampaya funds October last year. Reports on that case said, “A certain Ruby Tuason was included in the complaint for having received P242.775 million for a “still unknown principal.”
How much commission did she get out of that P242.775 million? And who was her principal?
For the offer to return P40 million and tell the investigators what they already know (about involvement of Enrile and his chief of staff, Gigi Reyes, and Estrada in Napoles PDAF) Tuason gets to keep the rest of the loot she got. She will be admitted in the Witness Protection Program. That means the plunder case against her will be dropped and she will be given protection by the government.
Tuason makes it appear that she is doing the Filipino people a favor with her testimony. Inday Varona does buy that line: “Someone should tell Ruby Tuason that she is not giving any favors to the Senate and the people. She is fighting for her life, trying to save her neck — and she better remember that!,” she posted in Facebook.
Vincent R. Pozon posted his reaction when Tuason said “For the sake of a better country, I am ready for your questions”: “Rolling on the floor laughing so hard and crying.”