Napoles sentenced to 60 years in jail
(UPDATE) THE Sandiganbayan on Friday sentenced businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles to at least 60 years in prison after convicting her in the case involving the illegal use of priority development assistance funds (PDAF) in 2007.
On Friday, the Sandiganbayan's Special Second Division released a 57-page document confirming that Napoles was guilty of four counts of malversation of public funds, with a total prison term of at least 40 years.
She was also convicted of four counts of graft, adding 24 more years to her sentence.
The court also ordered Napoles to return P20,910,000 to the National Treasury, which represented the amount that was illegally disbursed.
The decision was penned by Sandiganbayan Associate Justice Edgardo Callona, with Justices Arthur Malabaguio and Bernelito Fernandez concurring.
Napoles was accused along with former South Cotabato 2nd District Rep. Arthur Pingoy Jr., former Budget undersecretary Mario Relampagos, and several others.
According to the ruling, Pingoy endorsed the Philippine Social Development Foundation Inc., a nongovernment organization that was controlled by Napoles, for livelihood projects in his district with PDAF allocation.
In his court testimony, Benhur Luy, who was Napoles' former personal assistant and former finance officer, said he and his colleagues in the JLN Corp. processed a total of P22 million of Pingoy's PDAF allocation, which was diverted into four Special Allotment Release Orders (SAROs).
«The transactions with Pingoy were facilitated through [former Pampanga Rep. Zenaida] Ducut, a former member of the House of Representatives herself who acted as a 'go-between' for Napoles and the lawmakers, including Pingoy,» the ruling read.
«Pingoy received a total of P7,455,000 on various dates through Ducut, either in cash or via fund transfer to Ducut's bank account,» it added. «Luy admitted that he never met Pingoy nor [saw] him actually [sign] the documents involved in the transactions.»
Luy had also assumed that the signatures in the documents were Pingoy's, who had been Napoles' client since 2004.
Pingoy, Relampagos, and several others named in the suit have been acquitted after the prosecution failed to prove their guilt
