Ranillo may be ordinary witness, says De Lima

THE DEPARTMENT of Justice (DOJ) is open to accepting actor Mat Ranillo as a witness in the pork barrel scam case and to provide himwith protection if he asks for it, said Justice Secretary Leila de Lima.

De Lima was reacting to statements made in a television interview by Ranillo’s sister, actress Suzette Ranillo, who said her brother was ready to return to the country and testify about what he knew of the scam on condition that he be given protection.

“If he asks for protection, we can always grant him [that],” De Lima told reporters, but added that no one from Ranillo’s camp had approached the justice department.

According to De Lima, Ranillo was “not a respondent or a probable respondent” in the case. This is why he could become an “ordinary witness” if he wants to cooperate in the investigation.

“If he wants to volunteer some information, why not? And if the Senate blue ribbon committee would be interested in him then it can always issue a subpoena,” she said.

According to De Lima, Ranillo is involved in a civil suit against alleged scam mastermind Janel Lim-Napoles and the DOJ had used evidence he had provided in court to reinforce the government’s plunder case against Napoles.

In the civil case, De Lima said investigators were able to obtain proof that Napoles used cash vouchers in her transactions—a claim earlier made by the group of whistleblowers who said they used cash vouchers in the pork barrel scam transactions that were later ordered shredded by Napoles.

De Lima was referring to a 2005 legal dispute between Ranillo and JLN Corp. in which Ranillo was sued by Napoles for nonpayment of amotor vehicle.

Ranillo was also mentioned in connection with the pork barrel scam in an affidavit submitted by Ruby Tuason—a former social secretary of deposed President and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada—who is now a provisional state witness after she revealed that she had delivered kickbacks to Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Juan Ponce Enrile (through his chief of staff).

Meanwhile, De Lima said that Tuason was both a provisional state witness in the pork barrel scam and Malampaya Fund misuse cases.

However, she stressed that the decision to accept Tuason and Dennis Cunanan, the director general of the Technology Resource Center, as a state witnesses lay with the Ombudsman.