Lorna Kapunan: I would have won Napoles’ illegal detention case

Alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles may not have been sentenced to 40 years in prison for detaining whistleblower Benhur Luy for months had she retained lawyer Lorna Kapunan as her counsel.

Kapunan, who is now running for senator, expressed confidence Wednesday that she would have won Napoles’ case if she agreed to stay on as part of the businesswoman’s legal team.

“People think wrongly that I handled her (Napoles’) plunder cases. No. But if I continued to handle it (illegal detention charge), I would have won that case because she was wrongly accused by the whistleblower,” she told GMA News TV’s “News to Go” in an interview Wednesday.

Kapunan quit as Napoles’ lead counsel in her illegal detention case in October 2013, citing differences in opinion with another member of her client’s legal team, Alfredo Villamor, which could put the businesswoman’s defense at risk.

Napoles was eventually sentenced to reclusion perpetua or 40 years in jail after a Makati court found her and her brother, Reynald “Jojo" Lim guilty of detaining Luy, their cousin and her former employee, for three months.

Lim, on the other hand, remains at large and was never arraigned.

Luy, who is the principal whistleblower in the alleged P10-billion pork barrel scam, claimed he was detained illegally so he would not be able to reveal Napoles’ questionable transactions involving some lawmakers’ Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).

Napoles, however, claimed that Luy voluntarily went on a retreat. She is currently detained at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City.

The businesswoman is also facing plunder charges in relation to the alleged pork racket.

Although Kapunan said her relationship with Napoles “is all in the past,” she lamented how she is still remembered up to now about her involvement in the case.

“I think people recall me for the wrong reasons. They remember two of my controversial cases. One is [that of] Napoles, of course,” she said.

Aside from the controversial businesswoman, Kapunan also counts as her other prominent clients cager James Yap, doctor Hayden Kho, actor Coco Martin and stylist Liz Uy.

To fast track the resolution of cases concerning PDAF and the Development Assistance Program (DAP) funds, Kapunan said special courts should be created just for them.

“The reason kaya hindi umuusad ang mga PDAF cases ay… We need more courts, we need more judges. We need, in fact, specialized courts for PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund) and DAP cases,” she said.

At present, cases related to the alleged P10-billion pork barrel scam are being heard at the Sandiganbayan. —ALG, GMA News