Ombudsman to appeal Napoles, Lanete bail

The Ombudsman will seek a reconsideration of the Sandiganbayan’s order granting bail to dismissed Masbate Gov. Rizalina Seachon-Lanete and jailed businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, saying the antigraft court “misappreciated” its evidence on the diversion of over P100 million in pork barrel funds.

“We will file a motion for reconsideration for misappreciation of evidence,” Jose Justiniano, a former Justice undersecretary who serves as a deputized prosecutor for cases related to the diversion of pork barrel or Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF), said Friday.

Justiniano was called by the Ombudsman this week to consult with the prosecution panel on the Lanete-Napoles case.

The antigraft court had granted the Lanete and Napoles  bail on Wednesday, saying the evidence against them was “not strong” to warrant their continued detention while on trial for allegedly taking P108.4 million in kickbacks from Lanete’s pork barrel funds while she was still Masbate representative.

But Justiniano maintained that the prosecutors’ case was strong.

He said the court did not consider PDAF transactions involving the two accused from 2005 to 2006, thus the estimated kickbacks fell short of the P50-million threshold for a case to be considered plunder.

“The court only included transactions from 2007 to 2010, but there were already entries (of their transactions) from 2005 to 2006. The Sandiganbayan did not include it, that’s why I think it did not fully appreciate the evidence,” he said.

He also cited the court’s pronouncement in its decision that Lanete’s signatures were forged in the Memoranda of Agreement that she allegedly assigned with NGOs that turned out to be bogus.

“How can that happen when Lanete has not even testified? The court cannot say that those signatures were fake. Where did that come from?” the lawyer said.

Lanete, who had been detained at the Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City since her surrender in February last year, posted bail of P830,000: P500,000 for the plunder charge and P330,000 for 11 counts of graft.