De Lima leaving DOJ without completing probe on ‘Napolist’

MANILA, Philippines - Secretary Leila de Lima is leaving the Department of Justice (DOJ) without completing the investigation on the tell-all account of alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles and the so-called “Napolist” that implicated 78 incumbent and former lawmakers in the anomaly.

Two senators vying for vice president in the 2016 polls – Alan Peter Cayetano and Francis Escudero – were included in the Napolist.

De Lima had personally received the list from Napoles in May last year and tapped the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to verify and probe the allegations of Napoles in her list of lawmakers involved in the scam.

The secretary is expected to vacate her post next week when the Liberal Party (LP) announces her inclusion in the senatorial lineup of the administration for the 2016 elections.

Apart from Cayetano and Escudero, and three senators facing plunder trial before the Sandiganbayan – Ramon Revilla Jr., Jinggoy Estrada, Juan Ponce Enrile – there were four other incumbent senators in the list: Vicente Sotto III, Loren Legarda, Aquilino Pimentel III and Gregorio Honasan.

Napoles, alleged architect of the multibillion-peso Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) scam, tagged 78 incumbent and former lawmakers in her supposedly tell-all affidavit in exchange for possible immunity from criminal suit.

Former Batanes representative and now Budget Secretary Florencio Abad and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority head Joel Villanueva were also in the list.

The STAR reported last May that the probe was no longer pursued after investigators’ failure to secure the needed documents.

De Lima had denied the report, saying the NBI is continuing the investigation.

She only attributed the long delay in the probe to the difficulty in getting documents from the Department of Budget and Management.

“We have to get it from the implementing agencies concerned. It’s a tedious process,” she lamented.

She said findings of the DOJ probe would again be forwarded to the Office of the Ombudsman.

The camp of Napoles said the boxes of evidence are still with them, but they decided to just keep and present them in the proper forum.

Napoles, who is facing trial for plunder and other cases before the Sandiganbayan, is detained at the Correctional Institute for Women in Mandaluyong City after being convicted of serious illegal detention. The case was filed by pork barrel scam whistle-blower and former Napoles employee Benhur Luy.

The DOJ was earlier accused of having double standards in conducting the pork barrel probe, allegedly in favor of allies of the Aquino administration.

So far only opposition senators Enrile, Revilla and Estrada have been indicted before the Sandiganbayan over the anomaly.

They were part of the first batch of plunder charges lodged in September 2013 against 38 individuals, including Napoles.

The second batch, filed two months later in November 2013, involved graft complaints against former Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon and 33 others.

The third batch last August listed nine incumbent and former lawmakers for charges of malversation, direct bribery and graft, including Honasan, Villanueva, Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez and Manila Rep. Amado Bagatsing.

But Levito Baligod, former lawyer of Luy, said there should have been 29 lawmakers in the third batch.