‘Napolist’ Part 2: More officials to be named

MANILA, Philippines - The list of lawmakers and officials tagged by Janet Lim-Napoles in the pork barrel fund scam will include more names, her lawyer bared yesterday.

Bruce Rivera said Napoles will revise and add more names to the signed list she submitted to the Department of Justice (DOJ), which turned it over to the Senate Blue Ribbon committee last week.

Rivera said the new names cropped up while Napoles was checking on her records and preparing for a second, more comprehensive affidavit to be submitted to the DOJ this week.

“We confirm that additional names will be included because when Ma’am Janet checked her records, there were transactions that she missed initially due to their sheer volume,” Rivera told The STAR.

Rivera said the first list handed by Napoles to Justice Secretary Leila de Lima on April 22 was just the “initial” batch and the final list would be submitted this Wednesday or Thursday.

“In her second and longer affidavit to be submitted also this week, there will be more names because when Mrs. Napoles checked her other records, it was learned that these lawmakers had transactions,” he said.

Rivera said the additional names were kept “in a safe place” by Napoles which she was not able to immediately access.

“It was not possible to reconstruct everything in one sitting. These documents were not with her in Fort Sto. Domingo but she was able to keep them somewhere when the raids for the serious illegal detention case were conducted,” Rivera said, referring to where Napoles is currently detained.

Rivera, however, refused to divulge the additional names or elaborate further for lack of authority to speak on the issue.

But the lawyer hinted there could be “more than three names of senators and congressmen in addition.”

While confirming that the signed list made public by the Senate Blue Ribbon committee was still incomplete, Rivera also admitted that there is a name that should have not been included.

‘JV should not be in the list’

Rivera admitted Sen. JV Ejercito, who was listed as former congressman of San Juan, was erroneously included in the signed list submitted to the DOJ.

“There was a misunderstanding on the encoding of the initial list. That’s when Ma’am Janet saw it, she immediately wanted it removed because there was really no transaction with Sen. JV,” he said.

Rivera said the damage on the name of the senator done by the release of the initial, unvalidated list was precisely what they wanted to avoid.

“We never intended to release the initial list until we are ready with everything because, of course, it is irresponsible on our part to be dragging people’s names to the melee and then we cannot even substantiate that. It’s just pure hearsay,” he said.

De Lima asked the Senate Blue Ribbon committee last week to withhold the release of the so-called “Napolist” until the final list and affidavit are completed.

But committee chairman Sen. Teofisto Guingona III did not heed such request and made the list public.

Ejercito is among the 10 incumbent senators included in the list signed by Napoles.

The others are: Ramon Revilla Jr., Jinggoy Estrada, Juan Ponce Enrile, Vicente Sotto III, Loren Legarda, Aquilino Pimentel III, Alan Peter Cayetano, Gregorio Honasan, and Francis Escudero.

Former senator Manny Villar and the late former senator Robert Barbers are also in the list where Napoles affixed her signature and two thumb marks.

Former Batanes congressman and now Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, as well as Technical Education and Skills Development Authority head Joel Villanueva, were also in the list.

The list also included the names of 69 incumbent and former congressmen as well as those of alleged conduits for the implementing agencies like the departments of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, National Livelihood Development Corp., Technology Resource Center, and National Agribusiness Corp.

Different lists

Rivera, however, clarified there were no media personalities in the list of Napoles.

“There are no media personalities on our list. We do not know about it,” Rivera said, referring to news reports revealing the supposed list of principal whistle-blower Benhur Luy.

Rivera said Napoles was not aware of such payoffs in the media during their operations of the fund anomaly.

Asked how such discrepancy in records would affect the credibility of Napoles and Luy, the lawyer replied: “You should ask that to Benhur Luy because that’s from his records.”

The lists of Napoles and Luy of lawmakers involved in the fund scam also differed.

The initial list signed by Napoles and submitted to the DOJ contained the names of 12 senators allegedly linked to the scam; ten of them are incumbent. Napoles’ camp, however, clarified yesterday this list would be revised and more names would be added in her second, more comprehensive affidavit to the DOJ this week.

Luy’s supposed list, on the other hand, has the names of 25 senators. Fifteen of them are incumbent: Enrile, Revilla, Estrada, Sotto, Legarda, Pimentel, Cayetano, Honasan, Ejercito, Franklin Drilon, Cynthia Villar, Ralph Recto, Bongbong Marcos, Miriam Defensor-Santiago, and Lito Lapid.

The other nine on the reported Luy’s list are former senators Villar, Nene Pimentel, Edgardo Angara, Tessie Aquino-Oreta, Rodolfo Biazon, Loi Ejercito, Robert Jaworski, Ramon Magsaysay Jr. and Ramon Revilla Sr. The 10th on the list is Barbers.