Napoles trial postponed anew

MANILA, Philippines – The failure of ombudsman lawyers to correct the errors made on the pre-marking of documentary evidence forced the Sandiganbayan to cancel yesterday’s hearing on the plunder charge against Jessica “Gigi” Reyes and alleged pork barrel fund scam operator Janet Lim-Napoles.

Third Division magistrates of the anti-graft court, which rescheduled the hearing to Feb. 17, scolded and warned both the prosecution and defense lawyers of sanctions should they cause further delay in the proceedings.

“The court does not want any requests for postponement anymore. Otherwise, we will impose a heavy penalty on the prosecution, and even the defense,” Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang said.

She added that she expects ombudsman lawyers to be ready on Feb. 17 as no more cancellations due to uncorrected errors in the marking of documents will be allowed.

Last week, marking errors also caused the suspension on the hearing of the testimonies of whistle-blower Marina Sula. Associate Justice Samuel Martires noticed then that the document marked as Exhibit D was signed as Exhibit L, instead of getting marked as Exhibit D-1.

As ombudsman lawyers admitted that they are not yet finished with the corrections, Martires advised them to act independently and not wait on their superiors.

Reyes, a former chief of staff of Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, and Napoles are on trial for plunder because of their alleged involvement in the misuse of the lawmaker’s priority development assistance fund (PDAF), which was reportedly used to implement ghost projects through fake non-government organizations in exchange for kickbacks or commissions given to the legislator.