Napoles not most guilty, says her lawyer

By: Christine O. Avendaño - 10 years ago

Lawyer Bruce Rivera INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Following in the steps of Senators Ramon Revilla Jr. and Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada, Janet Lim Napoles plans to ask the Sandiganbayan to make a judicial determination of probable cause to try her on a charge of plunder, her lawyer said Monday.

A motion to this effect will be filed once the case has been raffled off, possibly this Friday, to determine which of the Sandiganbayan divisions will handle the case, said Bruce Rivera, counsel for Napoles, the alleged mastermind behind the alleged misuse of the congressional Priority Development Assistance Fund.

Napoles also will file a motion for reconsideration of the Ombdusman’s decision to deny her plea for immunity and to be treated as a state’s witness.

“We are not losing hope at this point,” Rivera told reporters after a meeting with Justice Secretary Leila De Lima at the Department of Justice.

Rivera said he met De Lima to assure the justice secretary that his client would continue to cooperate in the investigation of the pork barrel scam despite the Ombudsman’s denial of Napoles’ plea to be made state’s witness.

“That is part of our promise to Secretary De Lima, that we will continue to help the government despite and in spite of what happened because don’t we all want the truth? So at this point we have nothing to hide what we had already put out,” he said.

Rivera said that in the motion for reconsideration, he would show that Napoles was not the most guilty as she had shown in the expanded affidavit she submitted to De Lima and which was later turned over to the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee.

Rivera said Napoles would abide by the Sandiganbayan’s decision where to hold those charged in the PDAF racket. Napoles is currently detained at Fort Sto. Domingo in Sta. Rosa, Laguna on a separate charge of serious illegal detention.