Pork scam witness exposes ‘Janet Lim-Napoles Jr.’

Arraignment of Janet Lim-Napoles at the Sandiganbayan.
INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/LYN RILLON

MANILA, Philippines — A whistleblower in the pork barrel scam revealed on Monday that accused mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles had a deputy who was her namesake.

During the bail hearing of Senator Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada for plunder at the Sandiganbayan, Napoles’ bookkeeper Mary Arlene Baltazar testified about a certain “Janet Lim-Napoles Jr.,” who supposedly acted on behalf of Napoles.

Baltazar said Evelyn De Leon, who faces graft over the scam, even introduced herself as Napoles before implementing agencies.

“She is Janet Lim-Napoles Jr. Evelyn De Leon poses as Janet Napoles for some implementing agencies. She is known as Janet Napoles,” Baltazar said of De Leon.

De Leon is the head of Philippine Social Development Foundation Inc., a Napoles-linked non-government organization.

De Leon is out on bail for 16 counts of graft in pork scam cases involving Senators Ramon Revilla Jr. and Juan Ponce Enrile.

The pork barrel scam is the purported diversion of senators’ Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF) to ghost projects for kickbacks.

Estrada and Revilla are detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center. Enrile, meanwhile, is under hospital detention.

Napoles is detained in Camp Bagong Diwa female dormitory with Enrile’s co-accused lawyer Jessica Lucila Reyes.

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