Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/ MARIANNE BERMUDEZ
The government wants to know why Janet Lim-Napoles chose to go to Malacañang when she surrendered in 2013 at the height of the controversy on the pork barrel scam.
“I think this is already documented and not denied that when the name of Janet Napoles was exposed, the first thing she did was go to Malacañang. You already know who accompanied her to Camp Crame,” Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said Wednesday during the weekly Kapihan sa Manila Bay.
Aguirre said the circumstances surrounding Napoles’ surrender will be among the issues that they will look into on the reinvestigation on the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) scam.
Napoles surrendered in August 2013 to then President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III and Interior Secretary Mar Roxas.
READ: Napoles surrenders to Aquino – sources
But Aguirre was quick to make a clarification:
“What I’m just trying to say is that why did this person go straight to Malacañang, to the highest officials of the land, including Cabinet secretaries. You can say that high-ranking people are involved here,” he said.
Aguirre also asked why only former senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. and Jinggoy Estrada were charged in court for the PDAF scam when Napoles has provided the previous administration a list of incumbent and former senators, as well as congressmen who misused their PDAF.
“If you will recall during the time of Secretary de Lima, she said more than three times that they are going to come out with additional respondents, but it did not happen. During the Aquino administration, there were only three senators indicted so there was selective justice,” he said.
“There were a number of people who were accused of PDAF misuse, but only three were charged. There should be more people charged back then. There really was a miscarriage of justices,” the DOJ chief further lamented.
Aguirre said the reinvestigation could start with the “Napolist” earlier submitted by Napoles.
Aguirre is set to meet with the lawyers of Napoles.
He also hinted on her possible application to the Witness Protection Program (WPP) by submitting another affidavit.
Napoles was recently acquitted for serious illegal detention. However, she cannot be released due to a string of plunder and graft cases pending before the Sandiganbayan.
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