Some names said to be on ‘Napolist’ not really on it – Napoles lawyer

(Updated 6:15 p.m.) The legal counsel of businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles on Wednesday said that news reports about the contents of the "Napolist"—a list supposedly drawn up by his client of high-profile individuals involved in the pork barrel scam—have mentioned names that are not actually on it.

"Some government officials, who were reported in newspaper reports [as being] included in the list, were actually not on the list," Bruce Rivera told reporters after a court hearing on the businesswoman's serious illegal detention case.

"The public should be careful of what has been coming out," he said, adding that some people may be adding names "to create suspicion" about the list given by Napoles to Justice Secretary De Lima during a "tell-all" session before the former's surgery late last month.

"We have only one list and that was the one Mrs. Napoles handed to Secretary De Lima," he noted.

Three lists

However, Rivera also confirmed that Jaime "Jimmy" Napoles, the businesswoman's husband, also provided former senator and now rehabilitation czar Panfilo Lacson with a list.

The legal counsel quickly added that the list handed to Lacson was only partial.

"We confirm that Mr. Napoles provided Sen. Lacson with a copy of the list but it is incomplete," he said.

Earlier, Lacson told the Justice Secretary that he would release the partial list handed to him if the De Lima "Napolist" is "sanitized" in favor of administration allies who may have been on it.

The former senator revealed that about 21 incumbent and former senators, 90 congressmen, and two cabinet officials are on the list given to him.

Furthermore, in an interview after the ASEAN summit in Myanmar on Sunday, President Benigno Aquino III said that Napoles also gave him a list, bringing the number of "Napolists" to three.

"I have seen two and they don’t agree with each other exactly. And they are both supposed to have... come from Mrs. Napoles," he said, referring to his and De Lima's lists. The third also didn't seem to match the other two, he added.

The Senate blue ribbon committee on Monday issued a subpoena to De Lima to produce the list given to her.

'Biik'

Lawyer Levito Baligod, former counsel of principal scam whistleblower Benhur Luy, also said that Lacson's copy of the "Napolist" seems to be incomplete, since some lawmakers whom Luy told him were part of the scam were not included.

He added that some senators who were never mentioned by Luy or in pieces of evidence on the alleged anomaly have also been included in the list.

"Ano po ang purpose na iba sinasama niyang tao? Iba-iba rin ang sinasama niya. Walang ibang purpose kundi guluhin itong proseso at guluhin din ang pag-iisip ng mga mamamayan," the lawyer told reporters at the Senate on Wednesday.

Whistleblower Sandra Cam, who also claims to have another copy of Napoles' list, meanwhile said that some of the big names were left out of the documents submitted to the Senate by Lacson.

"Nakapagtataka dahil yung mga biik nailagay doon. We are looking for pork here," she said in a separate interview.

Cam added that she is still consulting with her lawyer whether she should also surrender her "Napolist" to the Senate.

Willing to appear before Senate

Meanwhile, Rivera said that Napoles is willing to face the Senate if the legislators were to ask her to testify anew.

"She's not insane that she can't talk… We will always adhere to the Senate," he noted.

Napoles has been charged with plunder, malversation, and corruption of public officials through the use of bogus NGOs that supposedly funneled money from lawmakers' pork barrel funds into ghost projects.

Napoles submitted the list to De Lima as part of her application for state witness and grant of immunity in the plunder case. — with Andreo Calonzo/BM, GMA News