Janet’s tell-all

She was goaded to tell all, and now that Janet Lim-Napoles has done that (or claims she has), certain officials are learning the hard way the meaning of being careful what you wish for.

As I wrote earlier, a redefinition of “mastermind” may be needed if Napoles is allowed to turn state witness. But it looks like this won’t happen, since President Aquino himself has publicly weighed in on a matter still being considered for endorsement by an office under him, the Department of Justice (DOJ). Since Napoles doesn’t appear to be the least guilty, she may not qualify as a state witness, P-Noy said.

This is legally correct, although there are exceptions to that least guilty requirement. P-Noy must also contend with the perception that disregarding Napoles’ statement will conveniently save the neck of one of his top aides and Liberal Party stalwart, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad.

As we know, Napoles is claiming that she, a mere high school graduate, was mentored in the complicated ways of skimming funds from the pork barrel by Abad when he was a Batanes congressman.

Would that make Abad the scam mastermind? Abad, also seen as the one who designed the controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) of the P-Noy administration, has denied the accusations.

Can daang matuwid or the straight path survive “Napolist” and the other corruption scandals now reaching its doorsteps?

It can – but only if it shows clearly that it won’t shield allies from a thorough and credible probe of wrongdoing.

So far its reluctance to move against allies is in inverse proportion to its speed in condemning anyone from the opposition or the previous administration accused of wrongdoing. In these cases, the accused is deemed guilty until innocence is established. When it comes to allies, the presumption of innocence is repeatedly invoked.

Just consider how long the administration pondered the accusation of the Czechs that Metro Rail Transit-3 general manager Al Vitangcol tried to extort $30 million from them and that his camp wanted the Czechs to partner with a local firm called PH Trams. Now it turns out that the company is controlled by Vitangcol’s uncle-in-law.

Vitangcol was finally sacked the other day by Teka-Teka Junior, Transport chief Joseph Emilio Abaya, after STAR columnist Jarius Bondoc wrote that the MRT-3 GM had awarded a P517-million train maintenance deal to PH Trams, a two-month-old company with a paid-up capital of P625,000. Abaya was among the signatories to the deal, according to Jarius.

The Czechs had urged the National Bureau of Investigation several months ago to pursue Vitangcol’s family ties in PH Trams, but were told that it was not relevant to the ongoing probe of the extortion case.

A deal involving P517 million warrants an indictment for plunder, a non-bailable offense. But since Vitangcol has friends in high places in daang matuwid, he has offered a revocable resignation. P-Noy, who fired the PAGASA chief after being awakened from his sleep by a powerful typhoon, has yet to act on Vitangcol’s offer to quit.

The betting is that Vitangcol will be allowed to skip town soon. He can touch base with PH Trams director Wilson de Vera, a Liberal Party candidate for mayor of Calasiao, Pangasinan in 2013, who by his own account is a green card holder living in the US. None of the LP big guns will admit knowing De Vera.

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The camp of principal whistle-blower Benhur Luy is accusing Napoles of muddling the story (mainly his testimony) to save her neck.

There is surely some truth to this. Who wants to rot in prison for life? But there’s also the possibility that Luy cannot provide the entire picture. Several personalities in the scam would not have dealt directly with him. Napoles is filling gaps in the whistle-blowers’ testimonies, and providing more insights into the mess. Their testimonies can complement each other.

We’re told that the “Napolist” submitted the other day to the DOJ and the Senate Blue Ribbon committee is supposed to be the final one, no more dagdag-bawas or padding and shaving of names.

But the list of individuals implicated in skimming billions from the Priority Development Assistance Fund or pork barrel and Malampaya Fund is not complete. We’re still waiting for more indictments to be made by the Office of the Ombudsman, based on documents submitted by the Commission on Audit covering PDAF utilization under the daang matuwid administration.

Napoles’ lawyer has also revealed efforts by certain officials, unnamed (for now?), to ask the businesswoman to exclude them from her final list and supposedly tell-all affidavit.

As intriguing as the names on the final “Napolist” are those believed to have been left out.

As of yesterday, the message circulating from certain quarters in the previous administration, during which much of the pork barrel scam was allegedly committed, wondered why one administration senator was excluded.

The senator, the messages alleged, was the one who in 2004 introduced Napoles to Rene Villa who at the time headed the Department of Agrarian Reform. Napoles is accused of skimming P200 million from DAR funds in 2007 and P900 million from the Malampaya Fund in 2009.

Villa, an LP member who is said to be a protégé of the senator, later lawyered for Napoles from 2006 until he was appointed as chairman of the Local Water Utilities Administration.

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The most common reaction among those implicated since last year – unsurprising for Pinoys, but striking for some foreigners – is not shame and remorse, but denial and anger. Many of them brazen it out.

At the “cultural soiree” hosted by President Aquino last week for delegates to the World Economic Forum on East Asia, several foreign diplomats found it remarkable that certain lawmakers implicated in the scam were chatting amiably with Justice Secretary Leila de Lima.

The DOJ chief told me that Napoles’ lawyer had sought out a common acquaintance to propose the meeting at the hospital that resulted in the tell-all. De Lima said she cleared the meeting with P-Noy, and later told him what Napoles planned to narrate in her affidavit.

Napoles is hoping for but not demanding immunity, and may settle for plea bargaining to get a lower sentence, De Lima told me. Napoles is also hoping to save her children from indictment.

I asked De Lima how P-Noy reacted when Abad’s name cropped up. She invoked ”executive privilege.”

De Lima told me she has stopped getting death threats. Is she getting enough sleep these days? Grinning, she told me: “I’m sleeping well… from exhaustion.”

For others, there are many sleepless nights ahead.