Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 14) — Lawyer Jessica Lucila “Gigi” Reyes denied in open court on Tuesday that she signed any document endorsing bogus non-government organizations (NGOs) and implementing agencies for projects under her former boss’s Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).
Reyes, who used to be chief of staff to former senator and now chief presidential legal counsel Juan Ponce Enrile, testified for the first time in her defense in a plunder case she is facing in relation to the misuse of PDAF.
She was asked to look at letters she supposedly signed that nominated agencies that would implement livelihood projects under Enrile’s PDAF and the recipient NGOs controlled by businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles.
“It is not my job nor am I authorized to nominate the implementing agency for the projects of the senator under the PDAF. These agencies are designated through the GAA (General Appropriations Act),\” Reyes said.
Reyes claims she first learned about the endorsement letters when the Commission on Audit (COA) used these documents as part of its special audit on the Priority Development Assistance Fund from 2007 to 2009.
She said Enrile supposedly confirmed to the COA through a letter that those were in fact her signatures.
However, they later learned that Enrile’s former deputy chief of staff Jose Antonio Evangelista asked Enrile to sign the letter to COA verifying the signatures without asking Reyes about it first.
\”I said to my former boss how can you be the one to authenticate our signatures, even I haven’t seen it,” Reyes said.
Evangelista is not a co-accused in the plunder case against Enrile for the diversion of his pork barrel, although he was included in those charged in the graft cases in relation to the same alleged crime.
Enrile is accused of conspiring with Reyes and Napoles in pocketing over P170 million in kickbacks or commissions in exchange for endorsing Napoles’s NGOs for projects under his PDAF from 2007 to 2009.
Ruby Tuason
Reyes also denied the allegations of state witness and self-confessed bagman Ruby Tuason that she (Reyes) received the kickbacks on behalf of Enrile.
Reyes said she met Tuason several times, usually they shared meals in various restaurants, to discuss other matters, including the sale of one of Enrile’s properties.
\”I did not receive any money from Ruby Tuason in these restaurants,” Reyes said.
She is set to continue her testimony on November 21.
