Malaca帽ang on Saturday defended Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. against insinuations he had knowledge of the alleged P10-billion pork barrel scam.
Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said in a radio interview that Ochoa was being accused of 鈥済uilt by association.鈥�
Guilt by association, she said, 鈥渄oes not stand up in any investigation or in any court.鈥�
鈥淚 really don鈥檛 know why ES Ochoa is being linked (to the scam). ES has nothing to do with this, so we don鈥檛 know the intention of those dragging him into this,鈥� Valte said.
When the alleged brains behind the scam, Janet Lim-Napoles, sat for an interview with the Inquirer on Friday in a Makati hotel, the first words she blurted out in Filipino were in defense of Ochoa.
鈥淗ey, Ochoa has nothing to do with this case,鈥� said Napoles, referring to the executive secretary, a founding partner of the MOST Law Office.
Ochoa divested himself of interests in the law firm after joining the Aquino administration in 2010.
MOST stands for Marcos (Liza Marcos, wife of Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr.), Ochoa, Edward Serapio and Joseph Tan.
Napoles insisted that 鈥淢OST is not my lawyer,鈥� although an affidavit she had submitted to the National Bureau of Investigation, which is probing her activities, named MOST as her lawyers.
Valte said she could not comment on the specific allegations, as the investigation had just begun.
But she said Justice Secretary Leila de Lima had briefed President Benigno Aquino III on the NBI investigation.
Valte said she did not know how the President reacted to De Lima鈥檚 report because she was not present at the briefing.
She said Ochoa was apparently being linked to the scam because his former law firm was mentioned in the news reports.
But no one is attributing wrongdoing to Ochoa, she said.
Administration sources told the Inquirer that Napoles had been hobnobbing with the rich and powerful for a long time. She was last seen in a gathering that was attended by members of the Senate.
Last year, she attended the birthday party of Sen. Franklin Drilon at Club Filipino and lawyer Jessica Lucila 鈥淕igi鈥� Gonzales-Reyes, the former chief of staff of Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, at Shangri-La Hotel.
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Campaign donor
According to the sources, the Liberal Party (LP) campaign for the elections in May received a donation of P10 million.
Valte said she had no information about that donation, and referred the Inquirer to the LP.
In a phone interview, Marikina Rep. Romero Quimbo, spokesperson for the Liberal Party campaign, neither confirmed nor denied that Napoles had donated money to the ruling party.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 know. That鈥檚 easily verifiable because it鈥檚 in the statement of expenditures and contributions, which is a public document,鈥� Quimbo said.
鈥淚鈥檝e never seen her in LP circles. I really don鈥檛 know if she contributed (to the LP), but I don鈥檛 recall. Although we had many contributors not known to me personally, so we鈥檒l have to take a look at it,鈥� he said.
Quimbo said Napoles was more identified with the 鈥減ast administration.鈥�
Napoles had written President Aquino to vehemently deny that she had engaged in shady deals described by an NBI agent as the 鈥渕other of all scams.鈥�