Napoles' camp denies offering to return P2 billion

MANILA, Philippines — The alleged "pork barrel" scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles did not offer to return any amount believed to siphoned from government funds, her lawyer said.

Bruce Rivera, her counsel, said reports that Napoles will return an amount of money misinterpreted earlier statements of Stephen David, another lawyer of Napoles.

"Clearly, Atty. David was taken out of context and misreported. There was never any statement that JLN offered to return P2 billion," Rivera said in a statement Thursday.

Rivera said that  David was only explaining that if the detained businesswoman would be returning any amount to the state coffers, it would be based on the plunder charges filed against her.

"What was being emphasized was the fact that what was charged was less than P2 billion not P10 billion. Hence, if ever there is an amount to be returned it should be based on the amount in the complaint, which is less than P2 billion," he explained.

The camp neither expressed any intent to the Department of Justice to return funds as part of Napoles' application to become state witness in the government's plunder cases against lawmakers purportedly involved in the multibillion-peso embezzlement.

"In all honesty,there was never any offer on our part of a definite amount because we don't want to pre-empt the government [officials] who  will make conditions on our application," Rivera said.

Napoles, however, is still willing to cooperate in the case build-up.

Principal whistleblower Benhur Luy's lawyer, meanwhile, had said that the P2 billion amount Napoles' was supposedly willing to surrender was way smaller than her original loot.

Lawyer Raji Mendoza said on Wednesday that Napoles' commission from the scheme has been invested in various properties and businesses and may have grown through the years.

Also read: Luy's camp says Napoles pocketed more than P2 billion

Despite the freeze order on her assets, however, Napoles may be keeping a bulk of her wealth in foreign bank accounts and properties named after other people.