Five separate cash offers of P5 million may have been dangled in front of the men who came forward as witnesses in the sprawling flood control kickback inquiry, according to information the National Bureau of Investigation says it is now scrutinizing.
The lead did not come from investigators stumbling onto it. NBI Director Melvin Matibag told reporters that a relative of one of the 18 individuals presented as former Marines approached the bureau directly, claiming that former congressman Mike Defensor had put P5 million on the table for each man. Matibag said the account was passed to the agency, which is treating it as a thread worth pulling within its wider look at the testimonies that have shaken the corruption probe.
Acting on the tip, the bureau has formally summoned Defensor and is requiring him to appear and account for the allegation.
The 18 men at the center of the matter are the same witnesses who claimed knowledge of cash deliveries tied to questionable flood control contracts—a group whose credibility has become its own subplot in the investigation. As Matibag spoke, the men were at the Senate, having been brought in for a Blue Ribbon Committee hearing examining the same controversy.
