Sharing Opinion from Atty. Raymond Fortun. Thank you! LEGAL OPINION: DID THE SENATORS COMMIT PLUNDER? From the time that the Napoles scandal broke out, I had been consistent in my position that Janet Lim-Napoles was the mastermind of the entire operation. She hatched the plan to misappropriate the PDAF funds of legislators through the use of bogus NGOs. The legislators agreed to this upon being offered a substantial cut/kickback. Who conceptualized the scheme? Napoles. Who benefited the most? Napoles. Was there Plunder? From a reading of the law, THAT APPEARS TO BE A DEBATABLE QUESTION. Section 2 of R.A. 7080 defines Plunder as follows: Any public officer who, by himself or in connivance with xxx other persons, amasses, accumulates or acquires ill-gotten wealth through a combination or series of overt or criminal acts as described in Sec. 1(d) hereof, in the aggregate amount or total value of at least Seventy-five million pesos (P75,000,000.00), shall be guilty of the crime of plunder. Plunder is a crime committed by a PUBLIC OFFICER. the criminal intent to plunder resides with the public officer. If the criminal intent to amass, accumulate and acquire ill-gotten wealth is conceptualized, initiated, and executed by a private citizen, then it MAY be argued that the criminal acts committed is NOT plunder but some other crime. If it is NOT plunder that was committed, then the accused Senators MAY be entitled to bail because the real crimes may be bailable offenses. That the Ombudsman impliedly admits a serious defect in their charges is their act of amending the criminal information against Sen. Bong Revilla, where they now charge that Bong acted in conspiracy with Napoles et al, which was NOT in the original charge. As any law student will agree, to charge the senators with conspiracy, the prosecution must prove that the Senators and Napoles acted under a singular criminal intent to plunder. I NEVER HEARD A SINGLE WITNESS TESTIFY DURING THE SENATE HEARINGS of any meeting where all the senators and Napoles were all together to hatch the plan to pocket their PDAF. So... Good luck to the prosecution in this regard. I hope they dont fabricate evidence/testimony to prove this. Can plunder be committed by being simply a recipient of kickbacks totaling more than Php75Million? That is a legal issue that may reach the Supreme Court very soon.
Posted on: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 01:09:10 +0000
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