WHAT WENT BEFORE: Janet Napoles case

Janet Lim-Napoles during an interview at the Inquirer office on Aug. 9, 2013. She surrendered to authorities 19 days later, after the Aquino administration offered a P10-million bounty for her arrest.

Janet Lim-Napoles was accused of masterminding the pork barrel scam for at least 10 years, using a network of bogus nongovernment organizations (NGOs).

In July 2013, the Inquirer broke the story on the scam to funnel P10 billion in Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) for lawmakers to ghost projects and massive kickbacks.

The following month, the Court of Appeals issued a freeze order on 344 bank accounts, 66 insurance policies and five credit card accounts held by Napoles, her family and relatives, her employees at JLN Corp. and her dubious NGOs.

With at least 28 houses in the country, authorities had a hard time looking for Napoles to serve a warrant of arrest issued on Aug. 14, 2013 in connection with the illegal detention case filed by whistle-blower Benhur Luy.

On Aug. 28, 2013, Napoles surrendered to President Aquino who had offered a P10-million bounty for her arrest earlier that day.

In June 2014, the Ombudsman indicted former Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada, Ramon Revilla Jr. and other government officials in the Sandiganbayan for plunder and graft in connection with the pork barrel scam.

Revilla was accused of receiving P224.5 million in kickbacks, Estrada P183.8 million and Enrile P172.8 million. Napoles was their coaccused.

In her 2014 affidavits, Napoles implicated 20 senators, 100 congressmen and their alleged agents. She requested to stand as a state witness, but this was rejected by the Aquino administration.

Revilla, Estrada and Enrile surrendered to the Philippine National Police. Enrile was detained at PNP General Hospital in Camp Crame.

In April 2015, Napoles was convicted in the illegal detention case. The Makati City Regional Trial Court sentenced her to up to 40 years in prison.

In August 2016, President Duterte raised the possibility of reinvestigating the PDAF scam, which he said allegedly involved detained Sen. Leila de Lima when she was justice secretary.

With backing from Solicitor General Jose Calida, the Court of Appeals overturned Napoles’ conviction in May 2017.

Following her acquittal, the lawyers for Napoles broached the idea of turning her into a state witness.

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II then created a task force to reinvestigate the pork barrel scam after meeting one of Napoles’ lawyers.

Aguirre said Napoles had implicated Senators Franklin Drilon, Antonio Trillanes IV and De Lima as well as former Budget Secretary Florencio Abad.

Citing his advanced age and poor health, the Supreme Court granted bail to Enrile in 2015.

Revilla’s case was the first to go to trial, which began in June 2017.

Estrada won his bail petition in September before a separate graft trial against him started.

Last November, Napoles asked the Sandiganbayan to dismiss charges linking her to Revilla’s case, citing the prosecution’s failure to pinpoint a “main plunderer” in the pork barrel scam and calling whistle-blower Luy a “tainted witness.” —INQUIRER RESEARCH

Source: Inquirer Archives