Pork barrel scam whistleblower Marlina Sula on Thursday recanted her testimony against former Senator Ramon Revilla Jr. and accused a prosecutor of coaching her to affirm the statements of fellow whistleblower Benhur Luy who she said lied under oath.
When subjected to direct examination during the resumption of the hearing of the case against Revilla at the Sandiganbayan, Sula denied meeting Revilla during her employment at JNL Corp., which allegedly handled the bogus non-government organizations of pork-barrel-scam queen Janet Napoles.
Revilla, who is facing plunder and multiple graft cases for allegedly pocketing P224 million of his pork barrel funds, said he was elated over Sula’s recantation.
“I cried with joy,” the former senator said.
“After four years, four long years, this. Today’s [Thursday’s] revelations only confirm what I have known from the beginning”•that I was targeted,” said Revilla who is detained at the National Police Custodial Center.
Sula made the denial during the hearing at the Sandiganbayan’s First Division on Thursday, when lawyer Reody Anthony Balisi asked her if she knew if Revilla was aware of the implementation of projects supposedly funded by his Priority Development Assistance Fund or pork barrel.
After denying having met Revilla, Sula admitted that while employed at the JLN Corp., she handled the supporting documents needed by the Napoles-owned Masaganang Ani Para sa Magsasaka Foundation Inc. to collect payment from senators.
Sula accused Luy of forging the signature of Revilla in the endorsement letters for the PDAF-funded foundations linked to Napoles. She claimed she saw Luy forge at least three letters.
“Si Benhur, siya yung mahusay pumirma ng lawmakers at siya yung nakikita kong pumipirma para sa lawmakers. Wala pong alam si Senator Revilla sa paggawa po ng endorsement letters,” Sula said.
The anti-graft court’s First Division chairman, Associate Justice Efren dela Cruz, told Sula to say the specific dates when Luy supposedly forged Revilla’s signature. Sula failed to give the dates, aside from those indicated on the endorsement letters.
Sula told also told the court that her statement during the 2014 bail hearing of Revilla “was based on my meeting with the Ombudsman prosecution panel handling the Revilla case.”
Sula said then-Ombudsman prosecutor Joefferson Toribio ordered her to corroborate the testimony of Luy to prevent conflicting statements in the plunder case. Toribio was later appointed Regional Trial Court judge by President Rodrigo Duterte.
