Napoles, two ex-solons get bail for pork barrel scam cases

In a matter of hours, a second lawmaker facing plunder charges in connection the pork barrel scam was granted bail together with alleged mastermind Janet Lim Napoles.

The Sandidganbayan Fifth Division on Wednesday granted the petitions for bail of former APEC party-list Representative Edgar Valdez and Napoles.

Bail was set at P1.5 million each for Napoles and Valdez.

“It would appear that for purposes of bail, there appears to be doubt as to the total amount of the alleged ill-gotten wealth amassed, accumulated, and/or acquired by accused Valdez, directly or indirectly with Napoles and De Asis,” the court said in its 254-page ruling.

The Plunder Law defines the crime as the acquisition of ill-gotten wealth through a combination or series of overt or criminal acts in the aggregate amount or total value of at least P50 million. It is punishable by imprisonment of up to 40 years.

John Raymund De Asis, Napoles' driver, has yet to file his own petition for bail and has yet to submit to the jurisdiction of the court.

The court ordered their release upon posting of the bail "unless (the accused) is being held for some other legal cause."

In Napoles' case, she has been convicted of serious illegal detention in connection with the abduction of her former employee-turned-whistleblower Benhur Luy.

In granting their bail petition, the Fifth Division said the prosecution failed to prove that Valdez received from Napoles the amount of kickbacks alleged in the charge sheet, or at least the threshold amount of P50 million for a crime to be considered as plunder.

Based on the charge sheet filed by the Office of the Ombudsman in February 2015, the former lawmaker received from Napoles a total of P57.78 million worth of kickbacks in exchange for allocating his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel from 2004 to 2010 to the latter’s alleged fake NGOs.

In its ruling, the court said that while there were several Special Allotment Release Order (SAROs) presented by the prosecution as evidence to prove that Valdez supposedly allocated million pesos worth of his PDAF to the Napoles-linked NGOs, most of these SAROs refers to allocation to NGOs not included in the information of the case.

Based on the charge sheet, Valdez allocated his PDAF to three NGOs allegedly owned by Napoles, namely, the Masaganang Ani Para sa Magsasaka Foundation Inc. (MAMFI), Social Development Program for Farmers Foundation (SDPFFI) and Philippine Social Development Foundation Inc. (PSDFI).

Yet, the court noted, some of the SAROs refers to allocation to other NGOs such as the Philippine Agri and Social Economic Development Foundation, Inc. (PASEDF) and Ginintuang Alay sa Magsasaka Foundation Inc. (GAMFI).

“PASEDF and GAMFI were not indicated in the [case] Information as among NGOs endorsed by congressman Valdez and from which NGOs he received commissions, rebates or kickbacks,” the court said.

The court pointed out that to admit pieces of evidence which are not part of the accusation stated in the case information would be a violation of the Constitution.

“To deprive them of their right to bail for evidence produced contrary to that charged in the complaint or information would be violative of their Constitutional right to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation against them,” the ruling read.

The ruling was penned by Fifth Division chairman Associate Justice Roland Jurado and was concurred in by Associate Justices Rafael Lagos and Maria Theresa Mendoza-Arcega.

The court said the largest amount of possible kickbacks the prosecution was able to identify to have come from the said NGO and included in the charge sheet was only P2.624 million.

“Furthermore, some of the amounts allegedly received could not be traced to come from which NGOs. Only the amount of P2,624,500.00 could be identified as to come from SDPFFI,” the court said.

Fourth Division

The anti-graft court's Fourth Division earlier in the day also granted her bail petition in the case involving former Masbate Representative and incumbent Governor Rizalina Seachon Lañete.

Lañete's co-accused, Napoles, was also granted bail by the fourth division. Napoles, Valdez and Lañete are all facing plunder charges in connection with the alleged pork barrel scam.

In separate cases, Valdez and Lañete are accused of funnelling millions of pesos of their priority development assistance fund entitlements to Napoles' bogus non-government organizations in exchange for huge kickbacks. — NB, GMA News