Janet-Lim Napoles inside his cell in Fort Sto. Domingo CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/PNP/PIO
MANILA, Philippines—Janet Lim Napoles, the central figure in the web of corruption involving billions of pesos in lawmakers’ pork barrel, will soon have her day of reckoning.
President Benigno Aquino said Tuesday that Napoles would be indicted as early as Friday this week in connection with the P10-billion pork barrel scam that has riveted the country and set off street protests.
“The first charges with regards to this issue, I understand, will be filed not later than Monday. There is a possibility it can be filed by Friday,” the President told reporters after speaking at the Asean Navy Chiefs’ Meeting in Makati City.
The President said he would be given a “complete briefing” on the case against Napoles and the others within the week.
“I will be given a briefing on what the lawyers called the theory of the case, the evidence that supports the theory of the case,” he said.
Aquino said that government prosecutors were studying the pieces of evidence and “possible defense that can be brought to court.”
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima has admitted delays in the filing of plunder charges against Napoles and her alleged co-conspirators in Congress with the Ombudsman because of the tedious task of compiling evidence against them.
Officials had said that senators and members of the House of Representatives would be charged along with Napoles in connection with the large-scale diversion of pork barrel.
The President had given strict orders to De Lima to file an air-tight case that would not only stand in court but lead to the conviction of the accused.
After her surrender on August 28, the idea of Napoles turning state’s witness cropped up, but Aquino said she had to be the least guilty to qualify as one.
Aquino, however, said it was premature for him to say whether the senators identified in a 2012 Commission on Audit report as having released their pork barrel to Napoles NGOs would be among those to be charged.
“It’s difficult to make a commitment right now,” he said.
Napoles, who is detained at a police camp in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, will be arraigned later this month before a Makati City judge on charges of unlawfully detaining Benhur Luy, an employee of hers who spilled the beans on the alleged diversion of pork barrel to bogus nongovernmental organizations created by Napoles.
The President maintained that he had never met Napoles before she was presented to him in Malacañang on the night of her surrender.
“You know, when I saw her when she came to the Palace, I was trying to look at her and I don’t remember her. I am normally very good with faces but I’m poor with names. She doesn’t look familiar whatsoever,” he said.
Aquino admitted that when he came face to face with Napoles that night, she appeared different from her pictures splashed on the front pages.
“A thought entered my mind for a little while: Is she the one we’re looking for?”
“Now, did I ever meet her to the level that we shook hands and said, ‘Hi’? I can’t even say I ever said ‘Hi’ to her,” he added.
Besides, there was no reason for Napoles to seek him out because at the time, he had no pork barrel, officially called Priority Development Assistance Fund, Aquino said.
Napoles ran her alleged racket from a unit in a posh hotel in Pasig City, where her staff churned out requests for funding from lawmakers using forged signatures of local officials, concocted dummy foundations to serve as conduits for the pork barrel, and made calls to government officials to approve the documents and release the funds, with the promise of commissions.
Napoles allegedly met with the lawmakers or their chiefs of staff to discuss how to split the kickbacks from their pork barrel allocations that remained with banks, waiting to be withdrawn by her own staff.
Napoles’ chief aide and cousin Benhur Luy exposed the scheme following his rescue in March by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation. Napoles had allegedly ordered him detained for three months after finding out he was attempting to engage in a similar racket behind her back.
Soon, several of Napoles’ staff followed Luy’s lead and executed affidavits detailing the scheme, and identifying the key players, including legislators.