Friday, May 2, 2014

Group eyes SC help to open Napoles list


MANILA – A whistleblowers group on Friday said it will ask the Supreme Court (SC) to order Justice Secretary Leila de Lima to finally release the copy of Janet Lim Napoles' list of people supposedly involved in the pork barrel scam.

Whistleblowers Association of the Philippines President Sandra Cam said her group will file a petition for mandamus before the SC next week to order de Lima to make the list public.

The supposed list is contained in the sworn statement that Napoles earlier submitted to de Lima following her decision to ''tell all'' that she knows about the scam.

"Ako ay nagcha-challenge sa kanya ng face off para makita kung sino sa amin ang nagsisinungaling pagdating diyan sa mga dokumento na dapat niyang ilutang sa publiko dahil binabayaran siya ni Juan dela Cruz,'' Cam told dzMM.

"Sobra na itong ginagawa ng secretary of Justice... Lalabas kami kahit sa tingin niya ay maliliit na tao lang kami... Lalaban kami sa posisyon na ito dahil nakakaawa na ang taumbayan."

In an earlier newspaper report, Cam claimed to have been given a copy of the list, in which several names of lawmakers who were previously not implicated in the scam appeared.

Cam said she would like to check if the list in de Lima's hands has been sanitized of Aquino allies.

De Lima belittled Cam's claim, saying the latter had no authority and standing on the issue.

The justice chief had said she will ask Napoles' camp if, indeed, it gave out lists to other people, saying she is not aware of it.

She added she would not to bow down to pressure stemming from reports about Napoles' list being released by various quarters.

She believes this is part of the reason why "lists" are coming out, precisely to pressure her into releasing the names Napoles gave her.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com