FORMER party-list representative Edgar Valdez channelled his Priority Development Assistance Funds to fake non-government organizations engineered by Janet Lim Napoles and received his commissions directly from Napoles, according to a whistleblower who testified Tuesday on the P10-billion pork barrel fund scam.
Marina Sula took the witness stand before the Sandiganbayan’s Fifth Division and maintained that Valdez got his kickbacks from Napoles.
She told the anti-graft court that she personally saw Valdez come to Napoles’ office at the Discovery Suites in Pasig City.
“I saw Valdez at the JLN Corp. office,” she maintained.
The Fifth Division is hearing Valdez’s bail plea for his plunder suit.
Sula said Valdez would always come to Napoles’ office whenever he would bring with him the documents needed by Napoles, and when he would collect “rebates.”
Valdez would turn over endorsement letters to Napoles for various foundations to be funded by his PDAF, she added.
She said she was tasked to xerox Valdez’s endorsements as part of her job at JLN Corp. and president of the Masaganang Ani Para sa Magsasaka Foundation Inc.
“There were times that Madam Napoles would tell me that she
was already able to get funds from Valdez’s PDAF,” she noted.
“I overheard Madam telling Benhur Luy to prepare for the money since Valdez was here.”
She, however, said she never personally handed over the commissions of Valdez, who would leave Napoles’ office carrying a paper bag.
Valdez, for his part, said he knew Napoles, but had not come to her office or had attended any parties or celebrations organized by Napoles.
The erstwhile lawmakers was slapped with plunder and seven counts of graft for allegedly pocketing P57.78 million worth of kickbacks for funneling his PDAF in 2004 to 2010 to the Napoles’ foundations.