Public lawyers' service to Napoles 'temporary, limited'

MANILA, Philippines - The service of high-profile public lawyers assigned to represent businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles for her appearance at the Senate is only "temporary, limited and provisional," Public Attorneys' Office (PAO) chief Persida Acosta said Thursday.

"Yung iba kasi nangangamba baka pati sa Sandiganbayan [we will assist her]. Aba, hindi," Acosta said in a radio interview on dzMM.

Acosta added that the assistance of appointed lawyers Howard Areza, Marlon Buan and Annaliza Soriano are extending to Napoles is exclusive to the Senate hearing only unless PAO lawyers are appointed again for the impending case before the Sandiganbayan.

"It is a temporary, limited and provisional assistance," Acosta stressed.

She also assured the public that the PAO will not collaborate with the private lawyers of Napoles.

At the Senate committee hearing on Thursday, Areza, Buan and Soriano requested to be given at least 15 minutes to confer with their new client before the start of the cross-examination on the pork barrel scam.

Napoles also requested that the hearing be held in an executive session, citing the "sensitivity" of the case but it was denied by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee.

Committee chairman Sen. Teofisto Guingona III told Napoles that they could not grant her request because the case does not involve matters of national security.