Amparo Cabotaje-Tang
Janet Lim-Napoles, who remains in prison for past convictions in connection with the 2013 pork barrel scam, should not have been acquitted in the latest case decided by the court.
Same with Lucila “Gigi” Reyes, onetime chief of staff of former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile.
This was the contention of Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang, who said that while the evidence presented against Enrile, Napoles and Reyes was not strong enough for a plunder conviction, the two women should have been found guilty of corruption of public officials and direct bribery, respectively.
The antigraft court’s Special Third Division on Friday cleared the three accused of charges that they connived in diverting P172.8 million from Enrile’s Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) into Napoles’ bogus nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) from 2004 to 2010.
In a 255-page separate opinion, Cabotaje-Tang agreed to their exoneration in the plunder case, but said the prosecution was still able to establish “by a preponderance of evidence” that Napoles received at least P365,437,500 from Enrile’s PDAF.
10 more years
For this, she said, Napoles should have been found guilty of corruption of public officials, ordered to return the amount, and given 10 more years behind bars.
“I … agree that accused Reyes and Napoles should be acquitted of the crime of plunder on the ground that the prosecution failed to establish that accused Reyes received from accused Napoles amounts which reached threshold P50 million set under (Republic Act) No. 7080 or the Plunder Law,” Cabotaje-Tang said.
“However, I humbly submit that the ponencia (author) erred in ruling that accused Reyes and Napoles may not be convicted of other crimes on the basis that the variance doctrine finds no application in this case,” she said.
The Sandiganbayan chief was referring to the main decision penned by Associate Justice Ronald Moreno, which refuted the dissent by citing the “glaringly insufficient and inconclusive” evidence presented by the prosecution.
But in rebuttal, Cabotaje-Tang cited the “legislative history of the Plunder Law, jurisprudence as well as the presence of overwhelming evidence on record.”
‘Unrebutted testimonies’
She brought up the testimony given by Susan Garcia, then a Commission on Audit director, who identified projects that were allegedly funded by nine special allotment release orders from Enrile’s PDAF.
The funding was transferred to six Napoles NGOs for projects that turned out to be “ghost or fictitious.”
“Unrebutted testimonies from the whistleblower-employees also show that upon the express instructions of accused Napoles, her employees forged project proposals, lists of beneficiaries, accomplishment reports, receipts, reports of disbursements, inspection and acceptance reports and certificates of acceptance to make it appear that the utilization of the PDAF was properly undertaken when, in fact, no such deliveries were actually made,” she noted.
But “more damning to Napoles” was the evidence consisting of 36 vouchers that government-owned and -controlled corporations issued to the NGOs for the disbursement of P365 million from 2007 to 2010, the justice said, adding:
“Based on the aforesaid evidence, the prosecution has sufficiently proven that accused Napoles committed overt and criminal acts to implement an unlawful scheme to divert the disbursements of the PDAF for her personal gain.”
‘JPE’ in hard drive
For the Sandiganbayan chief, Napoles should have been convicted of corrupting public officials based on the discovery of another sum—P46.39 million—in the daily disbursement reports (DDRs) found in the external hard drive kept by Benhur Luy, Napoles’ cousin and finance officer of her company, JLN Corp.
It was the total of the amounts indicated in five entries in Luy’s hard drive that were labeled “Enrile” or “JPE,” Cabotaje-Tang noted.
Another prosecution witness, Ruby Tuason, the alleged middleman in the scheme, “explicitly declared that she personally delivered the money she received from Luy in Napoles’ office to accused Reyes.”
Tuason served as former President Joseph Estrada’s social secretary.
Reyes also signed endorsement letters that designated the implementing government agencies and Napoles NGOs that should be infused with PDAF money from Enrile, the justice said.
Liaison
“Specifically, as chief of staff of Enrile, Reyes liaised with Tuason and agreed to the proposal of Napoles, through Tuason, to endorse bogus NGOs as implementers of the projects funded by Enrile’s PDAF.”
The antigraft court chief also disagreed with Moreno’s nullification of Luy’s DDRs for being mere unsigned photocopies. For Cabotaje-Tang, they were “equivalent to the original DDRs under the best evidence rule since they are clearly printouts or outputs readable at sight.”
“Also, it is worthy to note that (other former JLN employees) testified that Napoles ordered them to shred documents pertaining to the transactions of the NGOs, including the disbursement vouchers,” she said.
Reyes, therefore, should have been convicted of direct bribery on five counts and meted a prison term of up to nine years for each count, she said.
Cabotaje-Tang was named Sandiganbayan presiding justice in 2013, the same year the PDAF scam was exposed by the Inquirer in a series of reports. She is set to retire in November. INQ