By Meanne Corvera
Eagle News Service
(Eagle News) – Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III described as an “unbelievable, crazy development” the action of the Department of Justice provisionally placing Janet Lim Napoles under the Witness Protection Program.
Pimentel said Napoles should not even be considered as a witness in the pork barrel cases because she allegedly masterminded the scam involving the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).
“Do some people in the DOJ really believe that Janet Lim Napoles is qualified to be a state witness in the PDAF scam which she herself invented organized and perpetuated???” the senator said in a message to reporters.
Senator Risa Hontiveros also claimed that this development “reverse(d) the gains won by the people in their anti-corruption struggle which culminated in the historic Million People March. ”
She said Napoles could also be used as a “means to enforce loyalty” within President Rodrigo Duterte’s camp.
“This is expected, however. After all, this is the same government that used the testimonies of convicted and self-confessed drug lords (who have everything to gain and nothing to lose) to intimidate and unjustly incarcerates one of the leading figures of the political opposition.”
Earlier, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II confirmed that Napoles, who was tagged before as the “pork barrel queen,” had indeed been placed under the provisional coverage of the government’s Witness Protection Program.
He said Napoles gave more details on the PDAF anomaly in an affidavit she had executed.
