Napoles gets up to 54 years over ‘pork’

MANILA, Philippines — Detained businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles will remain imprisoned for graft and malversation of public funds over alleged misuse by a deceased lawmaker and an earlier plunder conviction by the Sandiganbayan in connection with Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr.’s Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).

But she secured a small win after being acquitted of graft charges still in connection with Revilla’s allegedly misused “pork barrel” fund.

In a decision promulgated last Friday, the Sandiganbayan’s Second Division sentenced Napoles to 36 up to 54 years in prison after being found guilty of two counts of graft and another two counts of malversation of public funds under Article 217 of the Revised Penal Code over the alleged misuse of P15.36 million worth of PDAF of the late former Davao del Sur 1st District representative Douglas Cagas.

Convicted with Napoles were former Technology Resource Center officials Belina Concepcion and Maria Rosalinda Lacsamana as well as private individuals Mylene Encarnacion and Evelyn de Leon.

They were sentenced to six up to 10 years of imprisonment for each count of the graft offense and 12 up to 17 years for each count of the malversation offense.

They were also ordered to jointly indemnify the government with P7.68 million, equivalent to the amount found to have been illegally disbursed.

The Second Division said this was on top of another P7.68 million in fine that they must pay to the court.

Filed by the Office of the Ombudsman in 2017, the cases stemmed from the release of a total of P15.36 million of Cagas’ PDAF to two fake non-government organizations (NGOs) allegedly owned by Napoles during the former’s term in 2007.

The PDAF allocation was for the supposed implementation of Cagas’ livelihood projects, but the ombudsman said a field investigation revealed that none of the projects were implemented.

The ombudsman alleged that Cagas, through his supposed bagman, former Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) chair Zenaida Ducut, received a total of P9.3 million in kickbacks from Napoles in exchange for the allocation of his PDAF to the latter’s NGOs.

“(The) prosecution successfully showed that accused Napoles actually owns, controls and operates bogus NGOs CARED (Countrywide Agri and Rural Economic Development Foundation Inc.) and PSDFI (Philippine Social Development Foundation Inc.). Also, accused Encarnacion and De Leon were presidents of the said NGOs,” the Second Division said.

The court had earlier dismissed the case against Cagas following his death in June 2021 due to COVID-19.

Cagas was the governor of Davao del Sur at the time of his death.

The cases against Ducut were earlier ordered to be temporarily archived as her legal team was able to prove that she is suffering from dementia.

Meanwhile, in a 223-page decision promulgated yesterday, the Sandiganbayan First Division acquitted Napoles of 16 counts of violation of Section 3 (e) of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, which stemmed from the alleged misuse of P517 million worth of Revilla’s PDAF or pork barrel during his term as a senator in 2007 to 2009.

Napoles, however, shall remain in prison, as the First Division had earlier convicted her of plunder still in connection with Revilla’s PDAF.

This was on top of Napoles’ conviction in 2021 of graft and malversation of public funds by the same court division in connection with the misuse of the pork barrel of former Cagayan de Oro City representative Constantino Jaraula amounting to P28.8 million.