SC junks Napoles bail plea in ‘pork’ cases

MANILA, Philippines — The Supreme Court (SC) has rejected the plea of businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles to be granted bail in the plunder and other cases against her over the multibillion-peso pork barrel scam that she allegedly masterminded.

In regular session yesterday, the SC dismissed the petition of Napoles assailing the Sandiganbayan decision that denied her bail application on the ground that the evidence of guilt is strong.

The SC affirmed the ruling of the Third Division of the anti-graft court in October 2015 and March 2016.

“The Court found that the Sandiganbayan had not gravely abused its discretion in denying the petition,” SC spokesman Theodore Te said in a press conference.

In her petition last July, the alleged brains of the multibillion-peso Priority Development Assistant Fund (PDAF) scam asked that she be granted bail in the plunder case against her and former Senate president Juan Ponce Enrile before the Third Division of the anti-graft court.

She claimed that she should be allowed to post bail – just like Enrile – because prosecutors “failed to present strong evidence” against her.

She stressed that the allegation that she and other accused accumulated or acquired ill-gotten wealth in the amount of at least P50 million should “fall into pieces as the amount of money pilfered cannot be exactly determined.”

Napoles also alleged that the Sandiganbayan committed grave abuse of discretion in denying her earlier plea for bail.

She claimed that her acquittal by the Court of Appeals in the serious illegal detention case against her has destroyed the credibility of Benhur Luy as witness in the pork barrel cases.

In August 2015, the SC granted the petition for bail of Enrile in the same plunder case before the Sandiganbayan due to his “advanced age and poor health.”

The two other former senators indicted with Napoles in separate plunder cases before the anti-graft court – Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Bong Revilla – also filed bail petitions.

The Sandiganbayan Special Fifth Division granted Estrada’s plea last September.

Napoles had previously filed several petitions before the SC seeking to stop her indictment in the PDAF cases, but all were dismissed by the high court.