<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Threat case: MP says she helped accused get financial aid
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Elena Chong, Courts Correspondent
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->MS DENISE Phua was familiar with the man who had allegedly threatened her as he had gone to the Member of Parliament for Jalan Besar GRC numerous times for help.
Ms Phua said since 2007, she had made about 10 applications for financial assistance on Ng Kim Ngweng's behalf to various organisations such as the ComCare fund committee and the Central Singapore Community Development Council.
Since January, Ng has been getting various kinds of help: $200 a month from the ComCare transition fund, a $35 monthly service conservancy subsidy and a medical card.
She also told Ng's lawyer, Ms Goh Siok Leng, that Ng received between $50 and $600 every month last year from various agencies.
In his alleged threat to cause hurt to Ms Phua, made on the phone to a government hotline, Ng had expressed unhappiness that the MP had been of no help to him, and that his financial assistance was not enough.
Asked yesterday by Deputy Public Prosecutor Imran Abdul Hamid if Ng had ever had any quarrel or confrontation with her, Ms Phua said she could not recall any.
'I just remember that every time Mr Ng comes, I will make the appeals on his behalf for him to the various agencies,' she said.
She conducts her Meet-the-People sessions in the block in Crawford Lane where the 49-year-old rag-and-bone man lives.
She said that though there was a procedure for applying for aid, she would sometimes circumvent that for residents in really dire straits.
'I have offered them bags of groceries. I always have 10 to 20 bags by my side or food vouchers or NTUC vouchers to give them on the same night,' she said.
'I believe Mr Ng has some expectations that when he comes to see me that the standard procedure is not enough, and that there should be some kind of voucher or cash.'
She told the court that on his last visit to her, she had not given him any vouchers and he had stormed off angrily.
Ms Phua said she believed Ng was also unhappy that she was helping his wife and children, who were coming to her separately for help.
She said she received an e-mail message from the general manager of the Central Singapore CDC on Jan 14, to tell her about the verbal threat made on the phone to the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports' Reach feedback channel two days earlier.
Reading her reply in court, she said the threat alarmed, but did not frighten her as she had been through much worse in life.
She also said that Ng's wife and son, who had a personal protection order against Ng, wanted him back in the Institute of Mental Health.
Ms Phua told the court that from the time the threat was made until Ng was found, she was accorded protection especially in big, crowded grassroots events. The case continues on Monday.
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Elena Chong, Courts Correspondent
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->MS DENISE Phua was familiar with the man who had allegedly threatened her as he had gone to the Member of Parliament for Jalan Besar GRC numerous times for help.
Ms Phua said since 2007, she had made about 10 applications for financial assistance on Ng Kim Ngweng's behalf to various organisations such as the ComCare fund committee and the Central Singapore Community Development Council.
Since January, Ng has been getting various kinds of help: $200 a month from the ComCare transition fund, a $35 monthly service conservancy subsidy and a medical card.
She also told Ng's lawyer, Ms Goh Siok Leng, that Ng received between $50 and $600 every month last year from various agencies.
In his alleged threat to cause hurt to Ms Phua, made on the phone to a government hotline, Ng had expressed unhappiness that the MP had been of no help to him, and that his financial assistance was not enough.
Asked yesterday by Deputy Public Prosecutor Imran Abdul Hamid if Ng had ever had any quarrel or confrontation with her, Ms Phua said she could not recall any.
'I just remember that every time Mr Ng comes, I will make the appeals on his behalf for him to the various agencies,' she said.
She conducts her Meet-the-People sessions in the block in Crawford Lane where the 49-year-old rag-and-bone man lives.
She said that though there was a procedure for applying for aid, she would sometimes circumvent that for residents in really dire straits.
'I have offered them bags of groceries. I always have 10 to 20 bags by my side or food vouchers or NTUC vouchers to give them on the same night,' she said.
'I believe Mr Ng has some expectations that when he comes to see me that the standard procedure is not enough, and that there should be some kind of voucher or cash.'
She told the court that on his last visit to her, she had not given him any vouchers and he had stormed off angrily.
Ms Phua said she believed Ng was also unhappy that she was helping his wife and children, who were coming to her separately for help.
She said she received an e-mail message from the general manager of the Central Singapore CDC on Jan 14, to tell her about the verbal threat made on the phone to the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports' Reach feedback channel two days earlier.
Reading her reply in court, she said the threat alarmed, but did not frighten her as she had been through much worse in life.
She also said that Ng's wife and son, who had a personal protection order against Ng, wanted him back in the Institute of Mental Health.
Ms Phua told the court that from the time the threat was made until Ng was found, she was accorded protection especially in big, crowded grassroots events. The case continues on Monday.
