Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — The Sandiganbayan on Tuesday (April 12) allowed pork barrel scam principal suspect Janet Lim-Napoles and Masbate Gov. Rizalina Seachon-Lanete to post bail for their plunder cases.
The anti-graft court’s fourth division found weak evidence against Napoles and Lanete.
“Wherefore considering that there is a finding that the evidence of guilt of accused Lanete and accused Napoles is not strong for the reasons cited above, the respective applications for bail of accused Lanete and Napoles are hereby granted,” the court said.
Lanete and Napoles are facing plunder and graft charges for misuse of Lanete’s pork barrel when the governor was Masbate congressman.
In February 2015, the Office of the Ombudsman filed a case against Lanete for receiving P108.4 million in kickbacks from her PDAF from 2004 until 2010.
The Ombudsman said Lanete’s pork barrel was diverted to Napoles’ fake non-government organizations.
Lanete and Napoles filed a petition for bail, and the anti-graft court had heard their petition since May 2015.
Plunder is a non-bailable offense— except if the court finds weak evidence against the accused.
Also read: Napoles asks Sandiganbayan to limit trial days to once a week
Napoles, not a “free man”
The court set the bail for each accused at half a million pesos. But this does not mean that Napoles can be set free.
“Bail for each of the said accused is fixed at Five Hundred Thousand Pesos (Php500,000.00) to be paid in cash and their release is order upon the posting thereof and its approval, unless the petitioner / applicant is being held for some other legal cause,” the dispositive portion of the ruling read.
In case Napoles is able to post bail, she will serve time in prison over her conviction on a separate case.
Last year, the Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 150 sentenced Napoles to up to 40 years in jail for illegally detaining her cousin and former employee Benhur Luy. Luy claimed to know about the transactions of Napoles and a number of politicians.
The court also ordered Napoles to pay Luy P50,000 in moral damages, and another P50,000 in civil damages.
Luy said Napoles and her brother Reynald “Jojo” Lim detained him against his will for over three months over suspicions that Luy was having separate PDAF transactions.
The Sandiganbayan First and Fifth Divisions earlier denied Napoles’ petitions for bail as co-accused in the plunder cases of senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Ramon Bong Revilla Jr. and Jinggoy Estrada over the PDAF scam.
CNN Philippines’ AC Nicholls contributed to this report.
Also read: Supreme Court grants Enrile’s petition to post bail; Jinggoy to wait longer
Also read: Ombudsman dismisses 12 gov’t execs over PDAF scam
