Jinggoy, Napoles ‘pork’ scam bail hearing cut short

The Sandiganbayan Fifth Division on Tuesday cut short the bail hearing of Senator Jinggoy Estrada and businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles due to the amount of documents the prosecution wants to present regarding the P10-B pork barrel scam.

 

"Nag-adjourn kasi napakaraming dokumento ang piniprisinta ng prosecution. Siyempre 'yung mga prosecutors kinwestyon namin. Baka naman hindi kailangan iprisenta lahat 'yun," Atty. Jose Flaminiano, Estrada's lead counsel, said in an interview after the hearing.

 

Estrada and Napoles face plunder charges for allegedly pocketing government funds through bogus NGOs used in the scam. Plunder is a non-bailable offense in cases when evidence is strong.

 

Instead, the court ordered both the prosecution and defense to meet today to mark evidence to be used in the bail hearing. Marking of evidence is considered part of the preliminary conference, which was originally scheduled for June 14, 15 and 16.

 

During the hearing, Flaminiano contested the amount of documents the prosecution wanted to admit as evidence, saying it was detrimental to the bail hearing which should have been conducted speedily.

 

"Dahil bail hearing lang ito. Dapat pinakamadaling procedure ang ginagamit, hindi 'yung magpiprisenta ng 6,000 documents daw 'yun. Nakita niyo 'yung mga dokumento, pag-iisa-isahin 'yun. Aabutin tayo ng siyam-siyam," he said.

 

Flaminiano however stopped short of calling out the prosecution for delaying the proceedings.

 

"'Di naman namin sinasabing ganun, na delaying tactics. Pero marami silang gustong ipresentang dokumento na parang 'di naman kailangan," he said.

 

Meanwhile for his part, Napoles' lawyer called out the prosecution for refusing to name their witnesses in the bail hearings beforehand.

 

"Kanina ko lang nalaman kung sino 'yung ihaharap nila. Kung ganun na biglaan 'yung pine-present na tao, 'di naman fair sa defense na 'di naman alam ang ihaharap. Paano namin i-co-cross examine 'yun?" Atty. Stephen David said.

 

"Made defeat 'yung purpose na summary proceedings, na mabilis. Kaya nga tinututulan namin, kasi 'di kailangan," he added.

 

David also contested the alleged delay in the proceedings.

 

"Ano 'yun? Pampatagal lang 'yun. Si Ruby [Tuason]. Si Benhur [Luy]. Sila na lang ang iharap. Sila lang ang makakapagsabi kung tumanggap si Jinggoy kay Napoles. Kasi nakakulong ang client namin. Pinapatagal pa nila," David said, referring to state witness Ruby Tuason and whistleblower Benhur Luy.

 

David also said that his client will only appear for succeeding bail hearings if the witnesses will be any of the whistleblowers or state witnesses.

 

The court set the next hearing for bail on Tuesday, July 15. —KG, GMA News