De Lima: Trust me, I promise not to sanitize Napoles list

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Trust me. That is my promise to the people. I will not sanitize the list.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said this on Tuesday amid stepped up demands in the Senate and the House of Representatives that she release the names of former and current lawmakers involved in the alleged P10-billion Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) scam on a list given to her by suspected mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles three weeks ago.

“You just have to trust me that I am not going to sanitize the list. That is my promise to the people. I won’t sanitize the list. I also promise to the people that I will do my mandate in a very responsible and prudent manner,” De Lima told reporters in an interview.

The justice secretary said government investigators needed to go first through the list, given to her April 22 at the end of a five-hour “tell-all” meeting at Ospital ng Makati with Napoles, to determine who among those mentioned may or may not be held liable in the diversion of state funds meant to uplift the poor into kickbacks and ghost projects.

“My main job is to vet, to validate. We will determine if there are bases in their inclusion by Ms. Napoles. [We would want to know] which of those named we could get evidence against, which of those the evidence is doubtful, or which of those have totally none at all, because theoretically that can happen—somebody is named and it would turn out that he’s not involved.”

She reiterated that she could not divulge the contents of the list until the vetting process was finished.

“That is why we need to have first a vetting process because we will eventually be asked, ‘Did you check if what Mrs. Napoles told you was the truth?’ I’m sure people would not want me to take her word for it,” she said.

Asked about fears that she might sanitize the list, De Lima said this would be difficult.

“The list did not come from me. We will know if something is added to or removed from it. It’s very easy to ask Mrs. Napoles whether or not I made changes on the list she provided,” she said.

The justice secretary said investigators were still completing Mrs. Napoles’ testimony “because there are details that need to be known.”

The completion of Napoles’ testimony and the vetting process are being done simultaneously, she added.

The team from the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the National Bureau of Investigation that is completing Napoles’ testimony is under Undersecretary Jose Justiniano, she said. “He is in charge but always under my supervision. There is nothing that they do that I do not know about. There is nothing that they do that I did not clear first.”

Former Sen. Panfilo Lacson and Sandra Cam, president of the Whistle-blowers Association of the Philippines, say they also have a list of lawmakers involved in the scam. At least one newspaper has published the names of 13 senators allegedly involved.

De Lima said Tuesday it would be up to the regional trial court to decide on Napoles’ motion for an extended stay at Ospital ng Makati after she underwent surgery to remove a tumor in her uterus. “She knows her stay in the hospital was only for a limited duration and dependent on her health condition. Everything will really depend on the assessment of her health condition. Let her prove that she still needed [to stay in the hospital].”

On Tuesday, Napoles was cleared by her gynecologist for discharge.

Napoles had been detained at a police antiterrorist camp since she surrendered to President Aquino in August saying she feared for her life. She is facing serious illegal detention charges after she allegedly held for three months her former aide who has turned state witness in the PDAF racket. She was allowed to go on a hospital furlough a month ago.

Senate inquiry

Sen. Bong Revilla dared the Senate blue ribbon committee on Tuesday to resume its inquiry and compel De Lima to produce the Napoles list. If the chair, Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, would not do so, Revilla said “he should resign.”

Guingona earlier circulated for his colleagues’ signature a copy of the committee report recommending the filing of plunder in connection with the PDAF racket against Revilla and Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Juan Ponce Enrile, who have denied wrongdoing.

Sen. Sergio Osmeña, the committee’s vice chair, was confident that the Senate investigation into the PDAF scam would be reopened “if it’s [put] to a vote.”

Osmeña agreed that “it’s not fair” to Estrada, Revilla and Enrile that De Lima was now withholding the list.

“If she’ll talk with the senators, then we’ll invite her to a caucus and hear her side because perhaps, she also has a point,” he said. “But what I fear is that the people would suspect a cover-up.”

‘Why the 3 of us only?’

Estrada on Tuesday rejected the idea of Guingona’s committee summoning De Lima to another hearing if only to compel her to produce the Napoles list.

“Why pass the responsibility on to the Senate, on the blue ribbon committee? She can release it on her own if indeed she has one,” he said in Filipino. “The problem with her is she’s too talkative. Now, she’s very, very silent about it.”

Estrada said she was “probably removing the names of her allies” on the list. He claimed he had received “very reliable” reports that “some members of the DOJ are always going” to Ospital ng Makati, where Napoles is confined, to convince her to “sign an affidavit linking us three senators only—only!”

“It’s unfair to the Filipino people. The Filipino people should and must know who are the others involved. Why the three of us only? It bolsters my belief that this is about selective justice,” he told the Inquirer.

Estrada noted that when De Lima was asked if Revilla, Enrile and himself were in the Napoles list, the secretary’s response was “absolutely.” But when asked if administration allies were also included, she replied that the DOJ would still evaluate the list, Estrada recalled.

“What’s there to evaluate?” he asked. “That’s totally unfair.”

Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco filed a resolution on Tuesday asking the House to investigate Napoles’ purported list of pork barrel scam conspirators.

“There is a compelling need for the House of Representatives to protect the integrity of every member by conducting an investigation and directing the justice secretary to disclose the affidavit of Mrs. Napoles containing the names of lawmakers and government officials identified by Mrs. Napoles in her sworn statement,” he said.

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