Napoles in WPP mocks legal system – Lagman
THE Duterte administration should prosecute, not protect alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Napoles, an opposition lawmaker said on Saturday.
Rep. Edcel Lagman of Albay, a lawyer, was reacting to the Justice department’s move to put Napoles under the government’s witness protection program ( WPP).
The pork barrel scam exposed in July 2013 is the scheme wherein the lawmakers’ discretionary Priority Development Assistance Fund, known as pork barrel, was diverted to bogus nongovernment and private entities run by Napoles instead of funding basic services and livelihood
initiatives for the lawmakers’ constituents.
Napoles is facing multiple graft and plunder cases in connection with the P10- billion pork barrel scam.
“The government must pursue the criminal prosecution of Napoles as the accused mastermind in the multi- billion peso pork barrel scam rather than give her protection, security and benefits under the WPP. The liberation of Napoles as the principal accused in the ‘ mother of all scams’ in order to be awarded a stellar role as state witness is a mockery of the justice system,” Lagman, a member of the Liberal Party ( LP), said in a statement.
During a Senate inquiry in 2013, Napoles’ distant relative Ribbon Committee that Napoles and her JLN corporation had so much PDAF cash that the money had to be placed on Napoles’ bed and bathtub, apart from those deposited in various banks and being kept at Discovery Suites in Ortigas Center.
“Napoles is disqualified from admission into the WPP because as mastermind, she appears to be the most guilty,” Lagman added.
Under the witness protection program, Napoles is entitled of the - tion and escort services; immunity
from criminal prosecution and not to be subjected to any penalty or forfeiture for any transaction, matter or thing concerning his compelled testimony or books, documents or writings produced; secure housing facility; assistance in obtaining a means of livelihood; reasonable traveling expenses and subsistence allowance while acting as a witness; free medical treatment, hospitalization and medicine for any injury or illness incurred or suffered while acting less than P10,000 if the witness is killed because of his participation in the Program; and free education from primary to college level for the minor or dependent children of a witness who dies or is permanently incapacitated; among others.
Lagman slammed Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre 2nd for downplaying Napoles’ admission to the WPP as merely provisional, since the law provides that a witness can only be accorded government protection if the offense in which his or her testimony will be used is a grave felony as Code or its equivalent under special laws; there is absolute necessity for his testimony; there is no other direct evidence available for the proper prosecution of the offense committed; the testimony can be substantially corroborated on its material points; the witness does not appear to be most guilty; and the witness has not at any time been convicted of any crime involving moral turpitude.
“It is of no moment that the
admission of Napoles into the WPP is categorized as ‘ provisional’ since all admissions are provisional because a witness is supposed to comply with conditions to remain under the program,” Lagman said.
Palace not involved
Malacañang on Saturday said President Rodrigo Duterte was not behind the Department of Justice’s move to place Napoles under the WPP.
In a radio interview, Palace spokesman Harry Roque said the President was letting the Justice department do its job.
“The President never interfered with the affairs of all departments. Otherwise, the President has no more time to lead the nation,” Roque told DZMM radio.
“Malacañang leaves this decision— if Janet Lim Napoles will be accepted under Witness Protection Program— to the prosecutors and Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre because there is a process in accordance with the law on how Janet Lim Napoles could be part of the Witness Protection Program,” he added.
Roque, a lawyer, explained that while Napoles has been admitted to the WPP, she was not yet physically under the program.
“I would like to clarify, she is not yet formally accepted to the witness protection program. The protective custody only means that the prosecutors still have to study if she’s qualified to be placed under the WPP,” Roque said.
“So the affidavit that she submitted still needs to be studied, but she is not yet formally accepted to the witness protection program. Not yet,” he added.
Roque issued the statement after opposition lawmakers criticized the move.
Magdalo party- list Rep. Gary Alejano said Napoles as state witness was an example of how “skewed” the justice system in the country had become.
“The most guilty now becomes the state witness,” Alejano said.
Napoles’ camp has filed an urgent motion to transfer her to the Justice department from her detention cell at the Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig.
Aguirre had floated the possibility of turning Napoles into a state witness in a new inquiry into the P10- billion Priority Development Assistance Fund anomaly.
Napoles was offered to turn state witness after she was acquitted by the Court of Appeals in the serious illegal detention case of her second cousin and pork barrel whistle- blower Benhur Luy.
She, however, remains detained as she is still facing plunder charges before the Sandiganbayan, along with her co- accused former senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada and Ramon Revilla Jr.
President Duterte earlier said that Napoles was just a “miminal player” in the pork barrel scam.