Blue Ribbon Committee chair, Sen. Teofisto Guingona III and Justice Secretary Leila De Lima reconcile after Guingona earlier admits being “disappointed” for not bringing whistle blowers during the pork barrel scam probe at the Senate on Tuesday (Sept. 24, 2013). Both parties shake hands after. (MNS photo)
MANILA (Mabuhay) – Justice Secretary Leila de Lima on Tuesday denied reports that the Department of Justice has dropped its investigation on “Napolist,” a list of names of individuals involved in the alleged pork barrel scam.
“How can we drop that, assignment iyan,” De Lima said, adding that the list was personally given to her by alleged scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles.
Earlier reports said the investigation hit a snag after the DOJ failed to receive documents from the Napoles camp that would back up the list.
A lawyer of Napoles, meanwhile, was quoted as saying in reports as saying that the DOJ had stopped following up on the matter.
Contained on the “Napolist” are nine incumbent senators and 69 former and incumbent members of the House of Representatives who, according to Napoles, have been involved in the scam, in which lawmakers’ funds were diverted to non-existent non-government organizations (NGOs) linked to Napoles.
De Lima insisted investigators are still verifying if the people on the list have indeed allowed their pork barrel funds to be siphoned off for bogus projects and if they had endorsed Napoles NGOs for the projects.
“Ang pinapa-verify ko diyan ay kung yung mga yun, yung mga nasa listahan ni Mrs. Napoles, ay nagkaroon ba talaga ng PDAF projects at ginamit ba talaga, in-endorse talaga yung Napoles NGOs,” she said.
“Now, about the kickbacks, ang makakasabi [kung] sinu-sino sa kanila ang tumanggap ng kickbacks, ang makakasabi niyan uli ay mga whistleblowers,” she added.
De Lima added that only former Napoles employee Benhur Luy and other whistleblowers would be able to tell how much kickback the involved government officials supposedly got.
Two batches of plunder and graft cases have already come out of the whistleblowers’ testimonies. A third and final batch, which should have been completed as early as last year, had yet to be finalized by the DOJ.
“This third is supposed to be the last batch as far as we are concerned, kasi yun ang mga pangalan na binabanggit ni Benhur Luy sa mga sarili nilang affidavits,” said De Lima, adding that she is expecting a final recommendation from Justice Undersecretary Jose Justiniano on who to include in the last batch.
“It’s a tedious process,” De Lima said of their investigation on the alleged scam.(MNS)