According to a Friday report on GMA 7’s Saksi, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said the council had started working on freezing the assets of the implicated lawmakers — Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Bong Revilla, and Jinggoy Estrada.
“It is public funds, kaban ng bayan iyan, coffers ‘yan, national treasury ‘yan. So in the end, dapat i-recover ‘yan. That is part of the integral process of exacting justice in anti-corruption cases such as this — lalo na’t plunder,” De Lima added.
Meanwhile, a source told GMA News that the AMLC has requested documents from the DOJ and the National Bureau of Investigation to support the asset preservation order to be filed against the three senators.
Last year, the DOJ filed plunder charges against Enrile, Estrada, and Revilla, as well as other former lawmakers for allegedly receiving kickbacks from so-called pork barrel scam operator Janet Lim Napoles, in an elaborate scheme to funnel their Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) into ghost projects and NGOs.
On Tuesday, the Office of the Ombudsman announced the indictment of Enrile, Estrada and Revilla for plunder, along with Napoles, over the P10-billion pork barrel scam.
The Ombudsman has yet to resolve two other batches of government fund-related complaints filed last year by the DOJ and the NBI. One batch is connected with the PDAF scam while the other concerns the alleged diversion of Malampaya gas funds to the so-called Napoles NGOs.
A Manila court had earlier issued a freeze order on the bank accounts and properties of Napoles.
Other individuals covered by the freeze order were former Agusan del Sur Rep. Rodolfo Plaza and former Benguet Rep. Samuel Dangwa, as well as scam whistleblowers Benhur Luy and Simonette Briones, Luy’s mother Gertrudes, and potential witness Ruby Tuason.
Energy Regulatory Commission chairperson Zenaida Ducut and around 70 other personalities and non-government organizations connected to Napoles were also covered by the order. — Amanda Fernandez/DVM, GMA News
