Korina Sanchez on ‘P50,000 Napoles cash gift’: ‘An unsubstantiated lie’

ABS-CBN news anchor Korina Sanchez has strongly denied receiving a cash gift from alleged pork barrel scam chief Janet Lim-Napoles.

A report published in Philippine Daily Inquirer Sunday, May 18, named broadcasters Sanchez and Mike Enriquez, as among those who “appeared in the disbursements files” of pork barrel scam whistle-blower Benhur Luy.

A certain Mon Arroyo allegedly received a P50,000 “birthday gift” each for Sanchez and Enriquez

In a press statement, a “dismayed” Sanchez denied receiving any kind of gift from Napoles and her company.

“I am astounded to learn that I was supposed to have received a birthday gift from her one time 10 years ago in 2004. This never happened. I did not receive any such gift, in cash or kind, from Ms. Napoles or her company nor emissaries then and up to now. I am dismayed that an unsubstantiated lie such as this should be given as much attention. Because how do you prove a negative?,” Sanchez said.

Sanchez explained that she only met Napoles and her family in late 2013 “after having been assigned to interview the Napoles family…after the news had broken out about the alleged PDAF scam.”

“I had never met Ms. Napoles nor had any associations with her, her family, her employees or associates before then, nor after my interview with her and her family,” she said.

The Kapamilya broadcaster also said that she knows a Mon Arroyo, who is an ex-husband of a high school classmate, but added that she has “not seen nor spoken nor heard of this person since he and my friend separated more than 10 years ago.

When asked how she feels that Mon already cleared her name from the allegation, “He can speak for himself kasi hindi ko naman alam talaga kung anong nangyari doon. Kung may tumanggap talaga noon at kung sino ang nagbigay. Sila ang magtuos at labas ako doon dahil hindi naman yan nakarating sa akin.”

The report made Sanchez sad especially because she is “very passionate about anti-corruption in media,” she said in an interview at the press conference of ABS-CBN and Japanese network NHK’s co-production venture “Happy Surprise” on Monday, May 19.

“Ako ang una at maaaring tanging very vocal about issues like that, kaya nalulungkot ako masyado kasi ako pa yung nabandera diyan.Napaka-weird pa ng sirkumstansiya, na 20 years ago na may nangyari na ganoon, na kumumbra daw ng ganyang halaga na, ano kaya iyon? Malaking-malaking food basket ba iyon? Or sampung litson na hindi ko naman natatanggap,” she said.

Korina thanked ABS-CBN for standing by her. The network in a statement called the allegation “baseless and unsupported.” It added  that, “The sworn statement of the person named to have allegedly brought the gift to Korina had also denied participation in this alleged gift-giving.”