MANILA – Newly-appointed Justice secretary Menardo Guevarra, in a manifestation submitted to the Sandiganbayan 3rd Division, said suspect pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Napoles was only granted a “provisional coverage” under the Witness Protection, Security and Benefit Act.
Resigned Justice secretary Vitaliano Aguirre was the one who gave Napoles the provisional status. He thought her statements could be helpful in the Priority Development Assistance Fund scam case.
But according to Guevarra, the grant of provisional coverage under the Witness Protection, Security and Benefit Program “does not confer upon (Napoles) an actionable right to demand detention or custody under the aforesaid program.”
Guevarra also stated that the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the law stated that the program “shall not take into its custody a witness who is under detention for any lawful cause.”
“It appears herein that accused Napoles is under detention pursuant to a process issued by this Honorable Court. This factual circumstance shall be taken into account by the department in the final resolution of accused Napoles’ application for coverage under the subject Program,” Guevarra said.
Napoles’ camp earlier filed a petition for her to be transferred to the Department of Justice, citing her provisional admission as state witness and the alleged harassment and threats against her at her detention facility, Camp Bagong Diwa.
The Sandiganbayan First and Fifth divisions recently rejected Napoles’ plea stating the provision on witnesses who have pending cases.
Napoles faces several plunder and graft charges before six divisions of the Sandiganbayan for alleged involvement in the P10-billion pork barrel scam.
Napoles allegedly conspired with about 12 former lawmakers to divert public funds to her fake nongovernmental organizations./PN
