Source: Solar News
Sandiganbayan Associate Justice Gregory Ong denies doing favors for the PDAF scandal suspect Janet Lim-Napoles.
A published photo shows Ong at a party in the company of Senator Jinggoy Estrada and Napoles.
Ong, who heads the appellate court’s 4th Division, had cleared Napoles of malversation charges in 2010 over the alleged anomalous purchase of 500 Kevlar helmets by the military in 1998.
The Sandiganbayan will also hear possible plunder charges that may be filed against government officials in connection with the alleged pork barrel scam that is being linked to Napoles.
Ong commented on the photograph: “If I remember correctly, Senator Jinggoy was in the middle, I would not know that there was another woman on the other side. But the timeline shows that that picture was taken recently, which is already a long time after the case was decided.”
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RELATED STORY:
Huge lawmakers’ fund scam reaches judiciary
By Manolo B. Jara
The Gulf Today
The Gulf Today
MANILA: The adverse impact of the scam involving the $250-million funding for lawmakers has reached the Philippine judiciary with two of its senior and ranking members facing investigation for their alleged involvement, according to officials.
Officials identified the two as Gregory Ong, the presiding justice of a special court called the Sandiganbayan and Associate Justice Danton Buesser of the Court of Appeals.
In particular, Secretary Leila de Lima of the Department of Justice said witnesses have tagged Ong as one of the ranking government officials who often attended parties hosted by controversial businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, the alleged mastermind of the $250 million scam allocated to lawmakers to help improve the lives of poor Filipinos. However, Ong vehemently denied his involvement in the scam amid claims of witnesses that Napoles had allegedly often boasted that she had nothing to worry about because she had “influential contacts” in the judiciary.
On the other hand, De Lima said Buesser was being investigated for allegedly channeling his “pork barrel” allocations to fake non-government organisations (NGOs) set up by Napoles.
Buesser served as congressman for his home province of Laguna in Southern Luzon before he was appointed associate justice in the appellate court.
Like Ong, Buesser, however, made a complete denial of his alleged involvement as he pointed out his signatures allegedly endorsing his allocations to the Napoles NGOs were forged.
In a press statement, Buesser also announced he would inhibit himself from criminal and civil cases involving Napoles that would be elevated to the Court of Appeals.
De Lima is among the three women officials widely acknowledged as independent-minded, intelligent and incorruptible, who compose a committee ordered by President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino to investigate the scam and file the necessary charges including plunder against Napoles and the lawmakers involved.
The others are Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales, the country’s chief graft-buster, as the committee chairman and Maria Gracia Pulido-Tan, the chief of the commission on audit, as the third member.
On Monday, another “casualty” arising from the scam emerged when Nonnatus Rojas announced his “irrevocable” resignation as the director of the National Bureau of Investigation.
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