{"id":102856,"date":"2017-05-17T06:33:31","date_gmt":"2017-05-17T10:33:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=102856"},"modified":"2017-05-17T06:33:31","modified_gmt":"2017-05-17T10:33:31","slug":"napoles-can-be-witness-in-new-pdaf-cases-aguirre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/05\/17\/napoles-can-be-witness-in-new-pdaf-cases-aguirre\/","title":{"rendered":"Napoles can be witness in new PDAF cases\u2014Aguirre"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Alleged<\/a>
Alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles can be a witness of the government on new cases to be filed but not on the pending cases before the Sandiganbayan.
(Photo: ALBERT <\/a>ALCAIN\/Presidential Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA\u2014Alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles can be a witness of the government on new cases to be filed but not on the pending cases before the Sandiganbayan.<\/p>\n

This was bared by Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not referring to those cases. (The cases already pending before the Sandiganbayan) will not be affected if she will become a state witness,\u201d Aguirre said.<\/p>\n

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales earlier said she will block Napoles from being a state witness.<\/p>\n

Aguirre said the Ombudsman can oppose a move to make Napoles a government witness only on pending cases.<\/p>\n

He maintained that it is up to the Department of Justice (DOJ) to determine who can or cannot be admitted to the Witness Protection Program (WPP).<\/p>\n

\u201dBut since the DOJ has the exclusive right to put a witness under the Witness Protection Program, we will exercise it if need be,\u201d Aguirre noted.<\/p>\n

Aguirre said that Napoles will remain in detention even if she becomes a state witness on the reinvestigation on the planned review of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) cases.<\/p>\n

Aguirre said this will not affect her pending plunder cases, which are non-bailable, before before the Sandiganbayan.<\/p>\n

Asked if Napoles could qualify as state witness in the possible cases that could emanate from the reinvestigation, Aguirre stressed that it would depend on what she has to say.<\/p>\n

The DOJ Secretary believes that Napoles could be a credible government witness if she would be able to substantiate her testimonies with evidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cDepende sa sasabihin niyan (It depends on what she says). If coupled with documents then there is no reason why she should not be credible,\u201d he pointed out.<\/p>\n

The DOJ chief said that while several camps are pushing for Napoles to be state witness, she would have to meet the qualifications set by law – that she should not be the most guilty of the crime and that her testimony must be indispensable for the cases to stand.<\/p>\n

He said he could only make an assessment of her eligibility once he reads her sworn statement.<\/p>\n

\u201dAs far I know wala pang gingawa affidavit ang amin lang po dito function sa DOJ tatanggapin lang naming kung may bagong complaint siya imbestigahan under Preliminary investigation,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

Aguirre further pointed out that in cases of plunder or corruption involving a government official and a private individual, the former is considered the most guilty as per the ruling of the Supreme Court (SC).<\/p>\n

“Based on a Supreme Court decision, it will be the government official who will be considered as the most guilty, because he is taking advantage of his public position,” he explained.<\/p>\n

Earlier, the Court of Appeals reversed a Makati City court decision which convicted Napoles and her brother Jojo Lim for serious illegal detention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u2014Alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles can be a witness of the government on new cases to be …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":86456,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,1145,16,95],"tags":[1494,12898],"class_list":["post-102856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-janet-lim-napoles","tag-vitaliano-aguirre-ii","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}