Whistleblowers perpetrated pork barrel scam —Napoles

Embattled businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, the alleged mastermind of the pork barrel scam, asked the Sandiganbayan Fifth Division to reverse its ruling denying her petition to post bail for a plunder case, maintaining that it was the whistleblowers who perpetrated the crime.

“Benhur [Luy] and the other whistleblowers are the ones in cahoots with each other. And to save them from their wrongdoings, they conveniently seek to blame Accused Janet Lim Napoles for their unlawful activity,” Napoles, through her legal counsels, said in a 29-page motion for reconsideration dated January 22.

Napoles is facing plunder and graft charges before the Fifth Division as co-accused of Senator Jinggoy Estrada in the alleged misuse of his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel.

Estrada is accused of amassing P183-million of kickbacks by allocating his PDAF to the fake non-government organizations allegedly owned by Napoles.

The Fifth Division last month denied both Estrada and Napoles’ respective petitions to post bail for the plunder case, citing the supposed strong evidence presented against them by the prosecution at the course of more than year of bail hearing.

In her motion, however, Napoles said the court erred in its decision by saying that there was a conspiracy between her and Estrada on the ground that she was the owner of the fake NGOs to which portions of the latter’s PDAF were allocated.

“Honorable Court seriously erred in holding that the NGOs allegedly used as conduit in the PDAF scam of Senator Estrada were owned and control by Accused Napoles… It bears to emphasize that Accused Napoles was not a party to any Memorandum of Agreement entered into by the NGOs involved in this case. Neither was she an incorporator, member or officers of the same,” Napoles’ motion read.

Napoles pointed out that on the other hand, it was pork scam primary state witness Benhur Luy as well as the other whistleblowers and their relatives who were named as presidents and incorporators of the fake NGOs being linked in the pork anomaly.

“On the other hand, the documents of the prosecution will show the active involvement and participation of whisleblowers…It is apparent and obvious that Benhur and the other whistleblowers were the ones directly and personally responsible for the said alleged anomalous transactions,” the motion read.

“It is farfetched and very perplexing that they would be very knowledgeable about the ‘modus operandi’ if they were not the ones who perpetrated the crimes complained of them,” it added.

Napoles said the Fifth Division erred in relying on an Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) report concluding that it was her who was the real owner of the fake NGOs.

Napoles said the AMLC report was unconfirmed and unproven as it merely based its conclusion on several withdrawal slips with notation “confirmed by JLN” which supposedly stands for “Janet Lim-Napoles”.

Whistleblowers Marina Sula and Merlina Suñas had earlier testified that when they were withdrawing money from the bank accounts of the NGOs, the bank verifier usually called Napoles over the phone to confirm if she authorizes the withdrawal.

Sula and Suñas recounted that the bank verifier will then usually write a note at the back of withdrawal slip reading “confirmed by JLN”.

In its report, the AMLC said the confirmation was irregular and not in the normal course of business as Napoles was neither a signatory of the bank account or an official of the NGOs.

In her motion, Napoles, however, pointed out that conclusion of the AMLC report was unfounded as there was never a verification done by the council to confirm if it was really her who made the alleged phone confirmation.

“The AMLC’s findings is based only on what was written on the withdrawal slips. The supposed bank employee  who made the alleged notation of ‘confirmation by JLN’ was never examined nor questioned by the AMLC, neither did the prosecution bother to present the bank employees to prove the same,” Napoles said.

Napoles’ camp had earlier alleged that it was really the whistleblowers who benefitted from the pork barrel scam as it was to their bank accounts as presidents of the NGOs where the PDAF allocations of several lawmakers were deposited.

Napoles further slammed the Fifth Division for giving credence to the daily disbursement reports (DDRs) of Luy contained in the latter’s external hard disk drive.

Luy’s DDRs contain the records of the supposed kickbacks several lawmakers, including Estrada, allegedly received from Napoles.

Napoles pointed out that Luy had earlier admitted before the court that his DDRs were still subject to her approval and signature as these were just mere drafts of the alleged amounts of commissions the lawmakers received.

“Since the alleged draft DDRs presented in Court are not the DDRs supposedly signed and approved by Accused Napoles, the entries therein remain unsubstantiated,” the motion read.

Napoles is also facing plunder and graft charges with the four other divisions of the Sandiganbayan also in connection with the pork barrel scam.

She is currently detained at the Correctional Institute for Women in Mandaluyong City.

Estrada, meanwhile, is detained at the Philippine National Police (PNP) Custodial Center in Camp Crame, Quezon City. —KG, GMA News