Guevarra ends witness protection for Napoles

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Friday said he has terminated the provisional coverage under the government's Witness Protection Program (WPP) of alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles.

Guevarra, according to a Department of Justice (DOJ) statement, "found no reason" to extend Napoles' coverage under the WPP as there have supposedly been no further claims of security threats against her inside Camp Bagong Diwa, her place of detention.

"Considering the denial of Ms. Napoles' Urgent Motion for Transfer of Custody to the DOJ WPSBP (Witness Protection Security and Benefit Program) by the First, Third, and Fifth Divisions of the Sandiganbayan, the main purpose for which Ms. Napoles had sought admission into the WPSBP has become moot and academic," Guevarra said.

He was referring to the decisions of the three anti-graft court divisions denying the businesswoman's urgent motions seeking transfer to a DOJ safehouse.

Napoles was provisionally admitted into the WPP last February 27, during the term of resigned Justice secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II, after she executed an affidavit supposedly linking more names to the multi-billion peso scam.

Soon after taking over the helm of the DOJ, Guevarra said Napoles had no "actionable right" to demand detention or custody under the WPP.

"The Department hereby manifests that accused Napoles was previously granted a provisional coverage under the Witness Protection, Security and Benefit Program. The same, however, does not confer upon her an actionable right to demand detention or custody under the aforesaid program," Guevarra had told the Sandiganbayan Third Division.

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales last year said her office will block the move to turn Napoles state witness. Citing the prosecution, she said Napoles is "one of the principal alleged malefactors" in the pork barrel scam.

Napoles faces five counts of the non-bailable offense of plunder and graft charges before six of the seven divisions of the Sandiganbayan. —KBK, GMA News