Gov’t can’t extradite Napoles to US yet

The government cannot just hand over businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles and members of her family to the United States, which is seeking their extradition to face charges of laundering $20 million in Philippine public funds, Malacañang said on Thursday.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said Napoles, the alleged mastermind of the P10-billion pork barrel scam, could be extradited to the United States only after the conclusion of her plunder cases in the country and her serving of jail sentences.

“[Napoles is] facing charges here. She has to stand trial here and serve sentence here before extradition,” Roque said in a text message.

He said domestic cases must be settled first as “this is the rule.”

But it may be a different case for Napoles’ children and relatives. They may be extradited only if they are not facing cases in the country, according to Roque.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra made a similar statement.

“Although we cannot extradite Napoles until her cases in Philippine courts have been terminated, the Department of Justice will extend all assistance to its US counterpart in prosecuting the money laundering cases, and in ensuring the people’s money is returned in due time to our national treasury,” Guevarra said.

Plunder cases

Napoles, who is detained at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City, is undergoing trial for plunder cases in the Sandiganbayan for allegedly orchestrating the misuse of lawmakers’ allocations from the pork barrel Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).

The penalty for plunder is reclusion perpetua or 30 years in prison.

Senators and congressmen channeled their PDAF shares to ghost projects through Napoles’ nongovernment organizations (NGOs) in exchange for kickbacks.

Aside from Napoles, her daughters Jo Christine and Jeane, son James Christopher, brother Reynald Uy Lim and his wife, Ana Marie, were indicted in Los Angeles on July 31 for conspiracy to commit money laundering, domestic laundering and international money laundering.

The US Department of Justice said about $20 million of the pork barrel funds was wired to Southern California bank accounts to buy real estate, shares in two businesses and two Porsche Boxsters, and to finance the living expenses of Jeane Napoles, and couple Reynald and Ana Marie Lim in the United States.

Jo Christine and James Christopher were charged along with their mother for graft and malversation in December 2016.

Jeane was put on trial for a P17.46-million tax evasion case involving her $1.28-million Ritz Carlton apartment  in Los Angeles. The Court of Tax Appeals, however, dismissed the case last December due to insufficiency of evidence.

Lim was convicted along with Napoles in the illegal detention case filed by pork barrel scam whistleblower Benhur Luy in 2015.

Wired public funds

Also on Thursday, Luy testified that he wired public funds to the accounts of Napoles in the United States.

“We used telegraphic [transfer] to the US for her accounts,” Luy said at the Sandiganbayan’s graft trial of former Sen. Bong Revilla.

Revilla was one of the dozens of legislators whose PDAF allocations were allegedly diverted to ghost projects of NGOs ran by Napoles, Luy’s employer.

Luy, however, refused to comment further when asked on the sidelines of the hearing. “I am not allowed to speak anything about that.”

A lawyer for other witnesses in the pork barrel scam said the indictment of Napoles in the United States would bolster the criminal cases the government had lodged against her.

Lawyer Stephen Cascolan said he expected some of the PDAF witnesses to testify in the United States. “They have long cooperated with the US government.”

Roque said the funds Napoles and her codefendants had attempted to hide away would soon be returned for the benefit of the Filipino people, with help from US authorities.

Guevarra said immigration authorities were checking whether Napoles’ children and her brother and sister-in-law were still in the country. —WITH A REPORT FROM DONA Z. PAZZIBUGAN