Janet Napoles wants to testify in own graft case

Businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, the alleged mastermind in the multibillion-peso pork barrel scam, wants to take the witness stand when a Sandiganbayan division starts hearing her graft case.

In a pre-trial brief submitted to the Sandiganbayan Fifth Division, Napoles listed herself as the first witness to be presented by her legal team when the trial on her graft case starts anytime this year.

The graft case stemmed from the alleged misuse of Sen. Jinggoy Estrada's pork barrel, formally known as the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).

Based on the information of the case, Estrada received P183 million worth of kickbacks from Napoles by allocating portions of his PDAF to two of her non-government organizations (NGOs), namely the Masaganang Ani Para sa Magsasaka Foundation Inc. and the Social Development Program for Farmers Foundation Inc.

Aside from herself, Napoles also listed as her camp’s witnesses her nephew Ronald John Lim and her driver and bodyguard John Raymund De Asis. The two, both remain at large, are also co-accused in the graft case.

Other witnesses listed by Napoles were representatives of the banks where Benhur Luy, Marina Sula, Merlina Suñas, Mary Arlene Baltazar and the other whistleblowers have bank accounts.

Napoles’ camp had earlier maintained that it was the whistleblowers who benefitted from the scam as it was to their bank accounts, as presidents and officials of the NGOs, where the PDAF of several lawmakers were deposited.

Also listed by Napoles as witnesses were representatives from the Commission on Audit (COA), National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Office of the Ombudsman who all conducted their own probe on the pork barrel scam.

Napoles also wants to send to the witness stand some representatives from the government implementing agencies National Agri-Business Corporation, Technology Resource Center and National Livelihood Development Corporation  who allegedly transferred Estrada’s PDAF allocation to the bank accounts of the fake NGOs.

Napoles manifested that she “reserves the right to present other witnesses” as the trial of the case progresses.

The Fifth Division has yet to set a definite date of the start of the trial proper, but had earlier required both the prosecution and the defense to submit their respective pre-trial brief listing all the documentary evidence and witnesses they intend to present.

Estrada, the primary accused in the case, has yet to submit his own pre-trial brief.

Just last week, the Fifth Division denied the respective motions of Estrada and Napoles to post bail for their plunder case also in connection with the pork barrel scam.

The court said the prosecution was able to present strong evidence against them that warrants their continued detention pending the resolution of the case.

Estrada is detained at the Philippine National Police (PNP) Custodial Center in Camp Crame, Quezon City, while Napoles is detained at the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City. —KBK, GMA News