MANILA – The Office of the President, through Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque, on Tuesday said it would be proper for the Office of the Ombudsman to investigate the revelation attributed to businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles that she contributed PhP5 million to the 2010 election campaign of Senator Franklin Drilon.
Napoles has been implicated as a principal in the so-called 2013 PDAF, or Priority Development Assistance Fund scandal, or the pork barrel scam, involving the alleged misuse by several members of Congress of their respective lump-sum discretionary fund to support pet projects. It turned out that some of the estimated PhP10 billion in funds were just diverted to fictitious or dubious beneficiary non-government organizations set up or operated in bad faith allegedly by Napoles.
The recently divulged link of Napoles to Drilon’s election campaign funding has been refuted by the senator, who labeled the information as “fake news”.
According to Presidential Spokesman Roque, Napoles should be allowed to articulate the exposé of the poll fund issue, and said the Office of the Ombudsman and the Department of Justice should look into it.
“Let her speak, and I’m sure that, in addition to what she has to say, she would have physical evidence to back up whatever it is that she alleges,” Roque said.
