THE admission of Janet Lim-Napoles to the Department of Justice's (DOJ) Witness Protection Program (WPP) is premature, Albay Representative Edcel Lagman said on Sunday, March 18.
Lagman said Napoles cannot be placed under WPP and eventually become state witness as there is no mandatory determination that qualifies her to be discharged from her pending plunder cases due to her involvement in the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) scam.
Last week the DOJ announced that it has placed Napoles under the provisional coverage of the WPP.
This came months after Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II announced that the government is planning to tap Napoles as state witness, implicating the other government officials involved in the PDAF scam.
Lagman questioned the decision of the DOJ to place Napoles under the WPP while the latter's admission as state witness is still being assessed.
"If the affidavit of Napoles supporting her admission as a witness under the WPP is still being assessed according to Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II and Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, why give her protective custody under the WPP as early as February 27, 2018 before the requisite process is completed?" He said.
Lagman said that Napoles cannot be under the DOJ state witness as she is the most guilty in the pork barrel scam.
Lagman said that Section 10 of RA 6981 states that any person who has participated in the commission of a crime must not appear to be the most guilty in order to become a state witness.
"Since Napoles is accused before the Sandiganbayan as the mastermind of the multi-billion peso pork barrel scam, she appears to be the most guilty, disqualifying her from becoming a state witness," Lagman said.
No authority
Lagman said the Office of the Ombudsman should also be the one to determine if Napoles should be state witness.
Lagman said that under Sec 17 Rule 119 of the Rules of Court, "the Special Prosecutor of the Office of the Ombudsman, who is prosecuting Napoles, will preliminarily determine that Napoles is qualified to be a government witness, and it is the Sandiganbayan where her plunder cases are pending which has the jurisdiction to grant her discharge as a state witness."
"In either case, the Secretary of Justice or the Director of the WPP has no role or authority," he added.
The proposal to place Napoles on the witness stand was met by opposition. Critics include Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales, which office earlier found probable cause to indict Napoles for graft and plunder.
Politicians indicted for the same are former Senators Jinggoy Estrada, Bong Revilla and Juan Ponce Enrile.
Estrada and Revilla are both detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center while Enrile is out of detention after the Supreme Court allowed him to post bail. (SunStar Philippines)