MANILA – The Supreme Court denied the motion for reconsideration Janet Lim-Napoles filed against the Sandiganbayan decision to dismiss her petition for bail for plunder and other charges in connection with the multibillion-peso pork barrel scam.
In a six-page resolution dated Feb. 6, the high court affirmed its Nov. 7, 2017 decision favoring the rulings of the anti-graft court in October 2015 and March 2016.
Napoles did not present new arguments to warrant the reversal of its earlier ruling, the high tribunal ruled.
She was also wrong to invoke the magistrates’ resolution absolving former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in her plunder case, the high court said.
Napoles’ petition for bail did not “involve an inquiry as to whether there was proof beyond reasonable doubt that Napoles was the main plunderer for whose benefit the ill-gotten wealth was amassed or accumulated,” said the Supreme Court.
“These are matters of defense best left to the discretion of the Sandiganbayan in the resolution of the criminal case,” read part of the resolution penned by Associate Justice Andres Reyes Jr. Ten other justices concurred.
“It was sufficient that the denial of her bail application was based on evidence establishing a great presumption of guilt on the part of Napoles,” the high court said.
The Sandiganbayan was required to only ascertain “evident proof” that Napoles committed the allegations against her, said the high tribunal.
Napoles was sent back to the detention facility in Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City after a legal intervention of Solicitor General Jose Calida led to the Court of Appeals acquitting her in May last year.
She spent only two years at the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City after a guilty verdict was meted out on her by a Makati City judge for the serious illegal detention of her cousin Benhur Luy, the primary whistleblower in the scam.
Napoles previously filed several petitions before the Supreme Court seeking to stop her indictment in the PDAF cases, but these were all dismissed. (PNA)
