Napoles asks SC for halt order vs plunder proceedings at Sandiganbayan

MANILA, Philippines — Businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, believed to be the brains behind the pork barrel scam, asked the Supreme Court to issue a halt order against the Sandiganbayan’s plunder proceedings against her.

Napoles filed a Petition for Certiorari assailing the Sandiganbayan’s resolution rejecting the demurrer to evidence she filed, that sought the dismissal of plunder case against her, and a separate motion to dismiss.

She urged the SC to issue a Temporary Restraining Order and/or Writ of Preliminary Injunction to enjoin the Sandiganbayan from the proceedings and nullifying the assailed resolutions due to “lack or excess or jurisdiction.”

A demurrer to evidence is a pleading that challenges the sufficiency of the prosecution’s evidence against the accused. It paves the way for the dismissal of the case halfway through the trial, without the accused having to present their counter-evidence.

READ: Jinggoy, Napoles plunder cases to proceed

A copy of the plea was made public only Tuesday.

Former Sen. Jinggoy Estrada is Napoles’ co-accused in the case.

Named as respondents are Sandiganbayan 5th Division Associate Justices Rafael Lagos, Maria Theresa Mendoza-Arcega and Maryann Corpuz-Mañalac.

No main plunderer in charge sheet

Napoles’ lawyers raised that the Information or charge sheet failed to identify Estrada as the main plunderer in the case and does not constitute a charge of plunder.

“The requirement of identifying the mastermind or main plunderer in the crime of plunder was introduced or came about only in the year 2016 when the Honorable Supreme Court en banc decided the GMA case,” the petition read.

They were referring to the 2016 SC ruling that cleared former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of plunder.

The SC granted Arroyo’s petition and set aside the rulings of the Sandiganbayan denying her demurrer to evidence.

‘NGO not even a respondent’

Napoles’ lawyers pointed out that the Sandiganbayan failed to summon or indict the supposed bogus non-government organizations involved in the scam, nor did it determine their true ownership.

They said that the Sandiganbayan justices established the link between Napoles and the NGOs based on “say-so of the self-confessed criminals turned state witnesses who unequivocally admitted that they were officers of the NGOs.”

“The miserable failure of the Ombudsman to indict the said NGO-corporations in the Information for Plunder or even summon them through any of the processes of the court, deprived the Sandiganbayan, 5th Division and the public respondents-justices of any jurisdiction over their persons, hence, it is not possible to pierce the veil of their corporate fiction in order to determine their alleged true ownership,” the petition read.

When the Sandiganbayan junked Estrada’s demurrer to evidence, it held that testimonies of the whistle-blowers, including that of star witness Benhur Luy, “show to the court every step or layer of the crime charged.”

Among the prosecution’s evidence cited by the court was the project listing from Estrada’s office identifying the Napoles-linked non-governent organizations Masaganang Ani Para sa Magsasaka Foundation Inc. and Social Development Program for Farmers Foundation Inc. as partners in the implementation of his supposed livelihood projects.

Napoles is following the steps Arroyo took to her freedom, as the former president also challenged the Sandiganbayan’s dismissal of her demurrer to evidence before the SC and was eventually ordered freed.

In December, the Sandiganbayan convicted Napoles for plunder in a separate case involving the PDAF allocations of Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr.

Estrada ran in the same slate with Revilla but failed to win in the 2019 midterm elections.