MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Leila De Lima on Monday said that the upcoming reinvestigation of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) scandal that exploded during the previous administration would be a “witch hunt” as she claimed that the woman at the center of the scam, Janet Lim-Napoles, had already struck an agreement with the government.
De Lima, the erstwhile justice secretary of the administration of Benigno Aquino III, said that the actions of the government which led to the acquittal of Napoles in her illegal detention case and its plan to make her a state witness were signs of a government witch hunt to silence its political critics.
“All of the actions of the government in causing the acquittal of Napoles and making her a state witness bear the hallmarks of an upcoming government witch hunt. It is regrettable when the real criminal mastermind is exonerated and the innocent persecuted, merely in order for an already despotic regime to achieve absolute political dominance by silencing any remaining opposition with threats of persecution,” said De Lima.
The senator is currently detained at the Philippine National Police (PNP) custodial center in Camp Crame stemming from her alleged involvement in the illegal drug trade at the National Bilibid Prisons (NBP).
On Monday last week, the Court of Appeals (CA) dismissed the conviction of Napoles, dubbed as pork barrel scam queen because her bogus non-government organizations (NGOs) were used to skim the government of public funds, for serious illegal detention.
In a 35-page decision, the CA said that the prosecution was not able to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the crime was committed. It said that there was no sufficient, convincing evidence that Benhur Luy, Napoles’ cousin and former employee, was held against his will in a retreat house.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II also announced that his department would launch a reinvestigation of the PDAF scam, believing that the probe conducted during the previous government was “selective.”
“We’ll be making an honest to goodness effort to reopen itong PDAF and even DAP cases. Kaya’t we could not rest in view of the fact that only three among hundreds of responsible public officials dito sa dalawang kasong ito. Kaya’t tuluy-tuloy po tayo. There will be no selective justice katulad nung nakaraan. Out of several hundreds of public officials tatlo lamang ang talagang nakasuhan,” Aguirre said.
The justice chief also hinted at a press conference last week that officials higher than senators might be indicted in the billion-peso scandal.
“Napag-usapan naming kanina yan. As a matter of fact kahit hindi niya sabihin sa akin alam ko naman na ganun ang pagkaalam ng marami sa atin e. Yun ang direction natin. Talagang kung sino yung lalabas ng involved yun ang ating ipo-prosecute,” Aguirre answered when asked if some names higher than senators were given by the Napoles lawyer.
De Lima also defended her office’s handling and investigation of the case, saying that the grounds cited by Aguirre in pushing for its reinvestigation were “misleading assertions.”
Contrary to Aguirre’s claim that she managed to file only one batch of cases, De Lima said the PDAF, or pork barrel, investigation conducted by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) under her resulted in the filing of three batches of complaints at the ombudsman.
She said that among those recommended to be charged were several senators and congressmen.
“The first batch of PDAF complaints involved eight (8) legislators, namely then Senators Jinggoy Estrada, Bong Revilla and Juan Ponce Enrile. The second batch included seven (7) Congressmen: Salacnib Baterina, Rozzano Rufino B. Biazon, Douglas Cagas, Marc Douglas Cagas IV, Ariel Olano, Arthur Pingoy, Jr. and Rodolfo Valencia. The third batch was filed against nine (9) legislators: Senator Gregorio B. Honasan II, and Congressmen Amado Bagatsing, Conrado Estrella III, Raymund Estrella, Manuel Ortega, Victor Francisco Ortega, Isidro Real, Jr., Rufus Rodriguez and Emmanuel Joel Villanueva (now Senator),” she said, adding that the Ombudsman had already filed cases against several of these individuals while some were already in progress.
De Lima also reiterated that Napoles’ statement could not be used to launch a reinvestigation because she was a “polluted source” willing to implicate anyone in exchange for being used as state witness and “save her own skin.”
The former justice secretary said: “Any new investigation cannot rely only on the testimony of a polluted source such as a convicted criminal and the mastermind of the PDAF Scam no less. Any new charges should be based on documentary evidence. I doubt if Napoles will be able to produce such evidence, considering that she had no evidence to produce herself when she approached me as the DOJ Secretary with a supposedly extended list of legislators—clients.”
“She was then willing to lie to avoid imprisonment. With her acquittal (in the serious illegal detention case) under this administration, it appears that she has finally succeeded in closing the deal that the past administration of the DOJ under my leadership refused her,” she said.
De Lima said it was doubtful if Napoles would be able to produce documentary evidence to support her testimony as she asserted that anyone could make a list containing names of alleged beneficiaries from the scam.