The testimony of socialite Ruby Tuason, who reportedly worked with Sen. Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada was described as a “three-point shot” and a “game winner” by Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee. With that, one wonders if her narrative account would spell the beginning of the end of the senators implicated in the pork barrel controversy.
Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV was more pragmatic and discounted the possibility that Tuason’s testimony is crucial in nailing the beneficiaries in the pork barrel scam.
Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago was more agreeable with Guingona, calling Tuason’s testimony a critical piece of the complex puzzle that is the paper trail leading to the alleged identified beneficiaries of the pork barrel and one of its chief architects, Janet Lim Napoles.
Santiago and Trillanes have axes to grind against Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile and it is surprising to see them take different assessments of Tuason’s testimony.
That Santiago, a former judge, evaluated the socialite’s account as weighty enough to build a case on may give some fodder to Guingona’s rather overly optimistic “three-point shot” analogy.
But let’s take Tuason’s word with a grain of salt. Despite her proclamations that she testified due to a bothered conscience, she admitted that she felt ostracized by friends due to her alleged involvement in the pork barrel scam, so she made that trip back home for her Senate appearance.
Tuason’s first person account, while filled with personal details that may be hard to refute, can still be contested by Estrada who demanded that Senate camera footage be released showing Tuason handing him suitcases supposedly filled with cash.
With Estrada’s show of offended outrage, however, one takes it as indication that the Department of Justice (DOJ) may have something worth pursuing. The Senate Blue Ribbon committee’s constant pursuit is keeping public attention from waning, something that the masterminds are hoping for after Napoles produced nothing but denials and silence.
With the pork barrel commissions delivered in cash and stuffed inside suitcases, bags and bath tubs, it is indeed difficult, if not impossible, to track down the flow of funds from the public coffers to the transactors and eventually the beneficiaries. Hence, the weight given to Tuason and Luy’s verbal testimonies.
What would bolster the case of the DOJ and the Blue Ribbon committee is the account of Gigi Reyes, Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile’s chief of staff who is now in the US.
With the Senate committee inviting other witnesses, including a retired actor, for its hearings, it may only be a matter of time before Reyes spills the beans.
In the meantime, let the lawmakers and officials continue to uncover more of the pork barrel scam.
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