PAULINE LABAYEN, JINGGOY ESTRADAS CHIEF OF STAFF. I posted the following article more than a month ago to enable netizens to learn some details about Pauline Labayen, who has since disappeared. I am reposting the article to enable my new friends to read it. Care to read: ON PAULINE THERESE MARY LABAYEN Last Wednesday, my friend and compadre dropped by my office at Quezon City. It has been customary for my friends to drop by without appointments, although I advise them to text me first to ascertain that I would be around when they arrive. Over a merienda of palabok and dinuguan, my friend narrated some intimate details about his neighbor of more than ten years in Sun Valley, Paranaque City. She is Pauline Therese Mary Labayen, a staff of Sen. Jinggoy Estrada. She is also described as an agent in the P10-billion pork barrel scandal. She is among those facing plunder and graft charges before the Sandiganbayan. My friend, who has personal knowledge of Labayen, spoke spontaneously and narrated the following facts without fear or favor, and inhibition. It was all straight talk. Pauline has been their neighbor, as she and her family lived in a modest apartment on the same street in Sun Valley. She used to sell insurance policies to their family and other neighbors. “Nagtitinda lang ng insurance iyan sa amin,” he said in clear and unequivocal terms. The neighborhood knew the Labayens as a family of modest means. Their modest situation changed ten years ago, when she started working as a field reporter in a major TV network. Jinggoy spotted her during her reportorial sojourn in that TV network and recruited her to work as one of his staff in the Senate. “Nag-iba na ang buhay nila mula ng nadikit kay Jinggoy,” he said. (A friend corrected me and said she first worked as a staff in the Senate office of Loi Estrada before she went to Jinggoy. I stand corrected.) They were a little bit surprised when Pauline bought a “mansion” for P5 million some eight years ago. That big house is just a few meters away from their house on the same street in the same village. Nosy neighbors were quite impressed by her display of sudden wealth because, all the while, they knew them they were of modest means. After they had that house renovated, they transferred there. Her family lives there until now. Pauline married a guy, who was never introduced to the neighborhood. The wedding reception was held in that house. Some political bigshots arrived there as guests and wedding sponsors. Jinggoy, Orly Mercado, and Loren Legarda were among the guests. As far as he knows, Pauline and her husband had separated. When, how, and why – those were the things he did not know. Although their separation was talk of the town, they did not bother to check because separation of married couples has been a common occurrence in the neighborhood. Pauline has a fleet of cars, mostly top of the line bands, or those that cost at least P2 million each. The neighborhood had observed that she changed cars almost every year. Last year, she had a Grandia. In the previous years, she had Pajeros, Fortuners, and others. Now, here is the piece de resistance: According to my friend, Pauline used to be a humble pie, but she has changed when her life has started to improve to show some upward mobility. “Dati nambabati noon, pero noong gumanda ang buhay hindi na. Hindi na nga namamansin. Matigas na ang leeg,” he said. ”Yumabang na.” In his unguarded moments, he dropped the bombshell. Since the mansion where she and her family transferred is just a few meters away from their house, they observed some years ago the coming and going of red-colored lightcars to their mansion. Those vehicles, the Kia Picanto type, arrived in three mostly in the night. Because they were colored red, they appeared like Coca Cola service cars, he said. But what surprised the neighborhood was that the other vehicles in their garage, mostly top of the line brands, would go out of the garage to give way to the newly arrived vehicles. They did not know the significance of the peculiar situation, where the cheap red cars were inside the garage, while the top of the line vehicles were parked outside, until the pork barrel scam broke out in media and whistleblower Benhur Luy named her as one of Jinggoy’s operatives and fund conduits. My compadre and the neighborhood could only surmise, albeit lately, that the vehicles exchanged places to give way to the delivery of pork barrel funds at Pauline Labayen’s residence. It could be surmised too that nosy neighbors would see the delivery of those duffel bags of money if the red, cheap cars were parked outside Pauline’s mansion. My friend made it clear he did not see the actual delivery of the duffel bags because the red cars were inside the garage. He and his neighbors did not have any way to check it because they did not have any idea of the pork barrel scam at that time. What he was saying was that they were very surprised by the peculiar situation. This incident did not happen once, twice, or thrice in the past, but several times, particularly during the 2006-2009 period, when the pork barrel scam was on its upswing. I committed an oversight when I failed to asked him if it also happened earlier than 2006. According to him, Pauline is nowhere to be seen in Sun Valley. He does not know if she is in town or has moved out. But Pauline’s father told him: “Nasa States siya.” It could not be confirmed if she is indeed in the US. The father would not elaborate. She has disappeared when the pork barrel scam issue suddenly graced the front pages of the newspapers. Nobody could say where she stays now. Her father, a younger brother of retired Bishop Julio Labayen, an activist priest, greets him whenever they meet on the streets. He is a kind-hearted, soft-spoken old man unlike Pauline, whom, he said, had changed overnight when her fortune had changed for the better. He does not feel that the neighborhood looks at Pauline positively. Would she ever resurface? My compadre said he did not have an answer for that $64 question. #
Posted on: Sun, 13 Jul 2014 09:28:14 +0000
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