Janet kept papers on lawmakers in list

MANILA, Philippines - With the revelations in her expanded affidavit drawing condemnation from lawmakers, Janet Lim-Napoles insists she has solid evidence to prove their involvement in the pork barrel scam where she is the accused mastermind.

This was according to her lawyer Bruce Rivera, who revealed yesterday that the detained businesswoman kept records and documents on transactions involving her bogus non-government organizations that had served as instruments for skimming billions of pesos from lawmakers’ Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel.

“We have evidence on each of the names included in the affidavit. We can’t just put the names of these senators and congressmen in the list without proof,” he said in an interview.

But unlike whistle-blower Benhur Luy, Napoles did not keep her files in a computer hard drive, the lawyer stressed.

“Her files were not kept in just one source. They were put in different places and we were able to recover them,” he added.

Rivera said they would submit the evidence to concerned authorities at the proper time.

He stressed that supporting official documents like special allotment release orders (SAROs) are readily available from the Department of Budget and Management.

“Mrs. Napoles wants the whole truth to come out. How can she be accused of lying when she has evidence?” Rivera reiterated that Napoles is eager to turn state witness.

In her expanded affidavit submitted to the Department of Justice last Monday, Napoles tagged 18 senators in the pork barrel scam. Ten of them are incumbent: Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada, Gringo Honasan, Lito Lapid, Loren Legarda, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., Vicente Sotto III and Cynthia Villar.

The eight others in the list are former senators: the late Robert Barbers, Rodolfo Biazon, Loi Ejercito, Robert Jaworski, Ramon Magsaysay Jr., Tessie Aquino Oreta, Aquilino Pimentel Jr. and Manuel Villar.

Napoles also tagged former Batanes congressman and now Budget Secretary Florencio Abad as her “mentor” in the ways of dealing with lawmakers.

What apology?

Malacañang, meanwhile, belittled Napoles’ apology for her role in the scam, saying the government is more interested in ferreting out “ultimate facts” from her.

“The DOJ will look into the ultimate facts, as what we call it in law, the ultimate facts in the affidavit complaint – what parts of those facts would support the case. So an apology is something that she chose to express in her affidavit, but that’s not an ultimate fact,” presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said in a press briefing.

“All of us, I think, (as) taxpayers… we have a right to know the truth and that is what this government is going to do – to do deep dives (into) the allegations, all these affidavits; not only of this one, but all those who have come forward to state what they know of the case, of the Napoles NGOs,” Lacierda said.

He said the Interagency Anti-Graft Coordinating Council would see to it that “whatever evidence that they have evaluated, and whatever case that they intend to file, should be supported strongly with proof.”

“We don’t know when they will file a case. We hope it’s pretty soon… And then, after that, then you go now to the judicial arena where the case is going to be actually prosecuted, and that’s an area where we do not have control,” he said.

Lacierda also maintained Cabinet members implicated by Napoles would not be asked to resign as the President stated on Monday during his ambush interview with reporters in Palawan.

“The President had said we would look at the evidence first, so we’ll have those evaluated. But like Secretary Butch Abad, he (President) mentioned for someone who has been – who’s an advocate of openness, transparency, it seems inconsistent with the (supposed) fact that this guy is hiding something,” he said.

He said Abad is now preparing next year’s budget and that he had been doing a lot of budget reforms and innovations.

‘Without factual basis’

Meanwhile, the Batanes Electric Cooperative Inc. (BatanElCo) yesterday denied in an affidavit that it had any dealings with Napoles.

“The allegations are without factual basis,” said BatanElCo’s president Quirino Gabotero Jr., general manager Victoria Mata, and past president Wilfredo Cabitac in their signed affidavit.

“The BatanElCo was never a recipient of a P10-million fund with SARO, contrary to the allegation of Janet Napoles in her statement,” their affidavit read.

They cited three projects in the amounts of P3.860 million, P3.452 million and P1.783 million “were directly downloaded to BatanElCo as financial subsidy without a SARO by the National Electrification Administration (NEA)” in January 2000 and were inspected by both the NEA and the Commission on Audit.– Aurea Calica, Kathleen Martin