NBI told to continue PDAF case buildup

MANILA, Philippines — Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra has ordered the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to continue the case buildup on the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) anomaly.

Guevarra said the NBI encountered hurdles in pursuing the PDAF scam probe after forwarding three sets of criminal charges against lawmakers and executive officials to the ombudsman during the previous administration.

Meanwhile, detained businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles may still testify in the reinvestigation of the multibillion-peso pork barrel fund scam despite her removal from the government’s witness protection program (WPP), the Department of Justice (DOJ) said yesterday. 

After deciding to drop Napoles from coverage of WPP last month, Guevarra said she could still cooperate in the investigation.

“She can give more information with or without protection (from WPP),” Guevarra said in an interview with CNN Philippines.

The DOJ chief explained that the NBI could reach out to Napoles in building the new PDAF cases.

“If part of the evidence gathered would involve voluntary information from Napoles, then so be it. I will leave it to the NBI to find out if it would be necessary to go out of their way to talk to her,” Guevarra said.

“We do not want to leave any stone unturned. So for whatever it is worth, we’ll do so,” he added.

 “The NBI is having difficulty because some of the original documents could not be found anymore, for some reason I was informed. But that should not really be an obstacle because these documents can be reconstructed and could still be retraced somehow,” he said.

“Although it might be more difficult this time compared to the first batches, that is not really a problem because there is something that could be done about it,” he explained.

Asked if Napoles could be considered a state witness, Guevarra pointed out that only the ombudsman could address such question.

“Considering her as a state witness is under the jurisdiction of the ombudsman because these graft cases will be filed before the Sandiganbayan. So the prosecutor there is not the DOJ but the ombudsman,” he stressed.