MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Risa Hontiveros and her Akbayan party on Tuesday assailed the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court's acquittal of plunder convict Janet Lim-Napoles on graft cases related to the 'pork barrel' projects of Sen. Ramon "Bong" Revilla Jr., who himself was acquitted in 2021.
In acquitting Napoles in the recent case, through whose bogus non-government organizations congressional Priority Development Assistance Fund were siphoned, the court said that she had already been convicted of plunder in cases with the same circumstances and evidence.
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The acts alleged in the case were "already included in the Plunder case for which they were already prosecuted for," the court said.
"It's a sad day for public accountability and our anti-graft efforts," Hontiveros said Tuesday, adding it was "an offense to the Filipino public that Janet Napoles's sentence is diluted and is incommensurate to the gravity of the corruption she engineered."
A separate Sandiganbayan division convicted Napoles on two counts of graft and two counts of malversation in another PDAF scam case, this time involving projects of former Rep. Douglas Cagas (Davao del Sur). Cagas died of COVID-19 in 2021.
"I hope this in no way discourages the Senate and law enforcement from continuously pushing for investigations and exposés that shed a harsh and necessary light on corruption ploys," Hontiveros, a member of the Senate minority, also said.
In a separate statement on Monday night, Hontiveros' Akbayan party said the decision "sends a terrible message: that corrupt individuals can easily evade accountability."
Napoles remains in prison because of her previous plunder conviction. The Court of Appeals in 2017 acquitted her in a related serious illegal detention case.
"While we welcome the four guilty verdicts against Napoles, we are shocked by the 16 acquittals," party president Rafaela David said, raising concerns that Napoles may eventually be released.
"We cannot allow a culture of impunity to prevail. We call on all defenders of democracy to demand transparency and be vigilant. The money plundered by this greedy individual could have gone to projects that may have uplifted the lives of so many Filipino families," David also said.