A PROSECUTION witness on Monday maintained before the Sandiganbayan that former congressman Edgar Valdez of the Association of Philippine Electric Cooperatives received money from businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles, alleged mastermind in the P10-billion pork barrel fund scam.
AMLC bank investigator Joeshias Tambago told the anti-graft court’s Fifth Division that 60 percent to 70 percent of Valdez’s transactions were related to his Priority Development Assistance Fund.
“The bank transactions mostly involved deposits of money from various non-government organizations allegedly owned by Napoles,” Tambago said during the bail plea hearing of Valdez.
He took into consideration on the dates of entry in the summary of rebates of whistleblower Benhur Luy and the dates when the money were deposited by the Napoles-linked foundations to Valdez’s bank accounts.
Another entry in Luy’s summary of rebates showed P1 million was given to Valdez as rebate on Oct. 10, 2006, Tambago said.
Three days later, P100,000 was deposited to Valdez through his Allied Bank’s savings account, he added.
Luy’s entry also showed P1 million was given to Valdez on March 27, 2008, while a day later, P500,000 was deposited to his account at Allied Bank.
At least four foundations deposited P270 million to the bank accounts of Napoles’ JLN Corp. and Jo Chris Trading that also deposited to Valdez’s bank accounts on several occasions, he said.
In a previous testimony, Tambago told the Sandiganbayan that Valdez’s five bank accounts received P51.9 million from some foundations owned by Napoles.
The former representative was charged with plunder, a no bail offense, before the anti-graft court for allegedly receiving Valdez P57.78 million in kickbacks from his pork barrel fund siphoned to the Napoles-linked foundations in 2004 until 2010.