The lawyers of suspected “pork barrel” fund scam mastermind businesswoman Janet L. Napoles are set to file criminal complaints before the Department of Justice against former Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad and Senators Franklin Drilon, Antonio Trillanes IV, and Leila de Lima over their alleged involvement in the misuse of the Priority Development Assistance Fund.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano N. Aguirre II said yesterday that Napoles lawyer Stephen David has confirmed that they will be among those included in the complaints of Napoles.
“This is a new evaluation by the lawyer and by Janet Napoles on who are involved in this PDAF scam,” Aguirre said.
“If the DoJ will find probable cause then we will forward it to the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman has the primary jurisdiction of her cases involving government officials,” said Aguirre.
He said the lawmakers allegedly used the non-government organizations of Napoles to funnel their PDAF and get kickbacks.
Aguirre said De Lima’s involvement in the scam has something to do with conspiracy and negligence when she was still Justice Secretary as to “why PDAF (scam) was consummated or committed.”
“Definitely, nabanggit si Abad, he is one of them,” said Aguirre about Abad as the instigator and the mentor of Napoles in the scam.
“Sinasabi sa akin ni Atty. David, paano mangyayari na si Janet ang pinaka-guilty samantalang high school graduate lang si Janet. How would she know the intricacies of a government release of funds,” the DoJ chief said.
The Justice Secretary said that there could be others, including senators, who may be included in the complaint.
“Hindi ko pa alam kung sino ang i-include nila. It’s the call of Janet kung sino sino,” he said.
Aguirre said David told him the complaints could be filed as late as next week. “Halos final na yung draft ng statement ni Mrs. Napoles. But they are still waiting for some documents,” Aguirre said.
Among the documents included in the complaints are copies of past General Appropriations Acts. (Jeffrey G. Damicog)