DOJ asks Pasig court to junk theft case vs Luy

By: Tetch Torres-Tupas - 11 years ago

Principal whistle-blower Benhur Luy. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday asked the Pasig City Regional Trial Court to dismiss the qualified theft case filed by alleged pork barrel mastermind Janet Lim Napoles last year against whistleblower Benhur Luy.

In a two-page motion, the DOJ through Assistant State Prosecutor Mark Roland Estepa and approved by Prosecutor General Claro Arellano said “it appears that complainant Napoles instituted the instant case as a leverage against respondent Luy, as the latter filed his own complaint for serious illegal detention against her,” the resolution stated.

The DOJ said it looks like Napoles is manipulating legal processes to harass Luy, “and in the process, make him answer for a non-bailable offense.”

“The undersigned, and this Office, can never countenance such blatant and deliberate bastardization of the law,” Estepa said.

Judge Maria Gracia Cadiz-Casaclang of the Pasig City Regional Trial Court branch 155, however, did not immediately grant the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) motion to withdraw information as she reset Luy’s arraignment from Thursday to August 20.

The postponement is without prejudice to the resolution of the motion. Casaclang then directed Napoles’ lawyers to comment on the motion within 15 days.

The court also gave Luy 15 days to respond to Napoles’ comment.

Records showed the Pasig Prosecutor’s Office on June 25, 2013 released a resolution backing Napoles’ allegation that Luy pocketed P300,000 which the businesswoman asked to be deposited in her bank account on December 18, 2012.

In his defense, Luy presented an affidavit of Napoles’ former employee Mary Arlene Baltazar, who said she was asked by Napoles to find documents that could be used against him.

Such instructions were apparently given after Luy was rescued by National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agents from his detention at Napoles’ condominium unit on March 22, 2013, the DOJ said in a resolution dated April 28.