STATEMENT OF SEN. LEILA M. DE LIMA ON THE DUTERTE ADMINISTRATION'S PLAN TO RE-OPEN "PORK BARREL" PROBE
Dispatch from Crame No. 84

Dispatch from Crame No. 84 - Secretary Aguirre is making it appear that the PDAF investigation conducted under my term was not exhaustive, and that only three (3) senators have been prosecuted as a result. He is now claiming that Janet Lim Napoles has a lot more information to reveal. These are, are at least, misleading assertions.

First, the PDAF investigation conducted by the NBI during my term resulted in three (3) batches of complaints filed with the Ombudsman. Among those recommended for prosecution are several Senators and Congressmen. The first batch of PDAF complaints involved eight (8) legislators, namely then Senators Jinggoy Estrada, Bong Revilla and Juan Ponce Enrile. The second batch included seven (7) Congressmen: Salacnib Baterina, Rozzano Rufino B. Biazon, Douglas Cagas, Marc Douglas Cagas IV, Ariel Olano, Arthur Pingoy, Jr. and Rodolfo Valencia. The third batch was filed against nine (9) legislators: Senator Gregorio B. Honasan II, and Congressmen Amado Bagatsing, Conrado Estrella III, Raymund Estrella, Manuel Ortega, Victor Francisco Ortega, Isidro Real, Jr., Rufus Rodriguez and Emmanuel Joel Villanueva (now Senator). The Ombudsman has already filed cases with the Sandiganbayan against several of these legislators. These cases are progressing at this very moment.

Second, Napoles is a polluted source. The past investigation therefore relied on the testimonies with supporting documentary proof of Benhur Luy and other whistleblowers who were former employees of Napoles. It was then apparent that Napoles was willing to implicate anyone in exchange for being discharged as a state witness and save her own skin. She was then willing to lie to avoid imprisonment. With her acquittal (in the serious illegal detention case) under this administration, it appears that she has finally succeeded in closing the deal that the past administration of the DOJ under my leadership refused her.

Secretary Aguirre, together with SOLGEN Calida who was instrumental in the acquittal of Napoles, is banking on Napoles as his single source of information for his so-called new PDAF investigation. Unfortunately for him, any new investigation cannot rely only on the testimony of a polluted source such as a convicted criminal and the mastermind of the PDAF Scam no less. Any new charges should be based on documentary evidence. I doubt if Napoles will be able to produce such evidence, considering that she had no evidence to produce herself when she approached me as the DOJ Secretary with a supposedly extended list of legislators--clients.

Anyone can make a list. It is another thing to back up this list with documentary evidence. I am highly doubtful and suspicious of this kind of investigative and prosecutorial approach of the DOJ. I myself am a victim of such actions of the DOJ, when trumped-up charges were filed against me solely on the basis of testimonies of criminal convicts, devoid of any documentary or object evidence.

All of the actions of the government in causing the acquittal of Napoles and making her a state witness bear the hallmarks of an upcoming government witch hunt. It is regrettable when the real criminal mastermind is exonerated and the innocent persecuted, merely in order for an already despotic regime to achieve absolute political dominance by silencing any remaining opposition with threats of persecution.