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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 6) – The alleged mastermind of the pork barrel scam, Janet Lim Napoles, wants three Sandiganbayan judges to be indicted for what she calls a “fortuitous decision” on her latest conviction.
In a statement Saturday, Naples lawyer Rony Garay said they are preparing the complaint against Judge Edgardo Caldona, who drafted the ruling that convicted Naples of multiple corruption and embezzlement charges, as well as magistrates Efrén dela Cruz. and Geraldine Faith Econg. , who agreed.
The Naples camp wants the judges of the first division of the anti-corruption court to be held accountable for “gross ignorance of the law, manifest bias and extreme bias.”
Naples accused the magistrates of having a “predisposition to convict her without looking at the evidence”, that is why in the first decision issued by the court she was unjustly convicted of direct bribery, a crime that is not charged. The Sandiganbayan in an amended decision eliminated this error, calling it a “typographical error,” Garay said.
In its 103-page ruling published Friday, the Sandiganbayan also found former Cagayan de Oro city representative Constantino Jaraula and three others guilty of funneling some ₱ 28.8 million from the legislator’s Priority Development Assistance Fund into the non-governmental organization Countrywide Agri. and the Rural Economic Development Foundation, or CARED.
Jaraula was separately convicted of direct bribery for receiving at least $ 2 million in bribes from Naples in exchange for choosing CARED as the NGO partner in the implementation of its PDAF-funded Farmer Livelihoods program in the lonely district of Cagayan de Oro in 2007.
The Naples camp, however, said Sandiganbayan used inadmissible evidence under the country’s cybercrime law and “did not consider” the motion to reopen the case on the grounds that the evidence was “illegally accessed.” He cited Benhur Luy’s admission that he hacked into the computer of the Naples JLN corporation.
Luy, the second cousin from Naples who previously worked for her, testified that he transacted with Jaraula and even gave her the refunds, as evidenced by her daily disbursement reports that even matched the public records of PDAF releases and deposits made at the CARED and Jaraula accounts. The Naples camp said Luy was lying.
Jaraula also denied the allegations, saying his signatures on documents related to his PDAF were forged, but Sandiganbayan says an examination shows them to be “very similar, if not identical” to those he claims to be genuine.
The Supreme Court declared the PDAF unconstitutional in 2013 following the complaint that billions of pesos went to fake NGOs and were pocketed by Naples and its cohorts, made up of public officials and individuals.
In 2018, Naples was sentenced to up to 40 years in prison for looting in connection with the misuse of Senator Ramón “Bong” Revilla Jr.’s PDAF, while the legislator was released for lack of evidence that he benefited from the plan.
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