Estrada to court: Luy ‘most guilty,’ immunity unjustified

MANILA, Philippines – Detained Senator Jinggoy Estrada asked the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan to revoke state witness Benhur Luy’s immunity from criminal prosecution, arguing that Luy is among “the most guilty” in the pork barrel scam.

Estrada’s lawyers filed the motion Monday, November 3, on the day the court publicly released its resolution rejecting the senator’s move to suppress as evidence digital records kept by Luy showing Estrada received P183 million in kickbacks from the scam.

The senator argued that Luy is not qualified for the immunity from suit because such is granted to state witnesses based on conditions, set by law and the rules of court, that the state witness must “not appear to be most guilty.” 

Luy’s participation in the scam covered “all aspects of the crime charged,” Estrada said, “from organizing the NGOs, to coordinating with the Implementing Agencies, dealing with the middlemen, falsification of documents, and disbursements of funds to legislators.” 

Estrada cited Luy’s “elevated position” as financial officer of JLN Corporation – supposedly the mother company of bogus non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that allegedly unlawfully received lawmakers’ Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel – and as president of one of the NGOs.

Justice Undersecretary Jose “JJ” Justiniano defended Luy from attacks on his credibility in a press conference last Thursday, October 30, hosted by the Ombudsman.

“The deeper the involvement in the conspiracy, the more credible is his testimony,” he said. 

In detention at a police camp for 4 months now, Estrada is charged in court with plunder and 11 counts of graft for the alleged multi-million-peso diversion of his PDAF to ghost projects of NGOs supposedly controlled by scam mastermind Janet Napoles.

Luy revealed the massive scheme of his former boss Napoles to authorities in mid-2013, causing public uproar and clamor for greater transparency in the use of government funds.

October 31 resolution

Meanwhile, the Sandiganbayan Fifth Division admitted as evidence the digital files saved by Luy in his 500-gigabyte external hard disk drive.

In an October 31 resolution released Monday, the 5th division justices tagged as “feeble,” “ironic,” and “laid on the wrong premise” Estrada’s attempt to suppress the said files as evidence for being allegedly illegally obtained.

Estrada had accused Luy of committing criminal acts, such as hacking of and illegal access to the Napoles-owned JLN Corporation’s files, which include a report on participating lawmakers’ scam commissions encoded by Luy. 

The court stressed Luy’s immunity from criminal prosecution.

“This Immunity was granted to him precisely to insulate him from threats of criminal suit so that he may freely impart with this Court the full extent of his knowledge of matters relevant to these PDAF Cases,” the court resolved.

The court found merit in the prosecution’s argument that Luy as then JLN employee had lawful access to the files at the time he transferred them to his storage device.

“Luy, a private individual, obtained a copy of the disbursement reports while acting in his private capacity and without the intervention of law enforcers,” the resolution read, rejecting Estrada’s claim that Luy’s actions constituted a warrantless search and seizure.

The court further resolved that Estrada cannot invoke his constitutional right against unwarranted searches and seizures, as he is a third party and not the owner of the subject files.

Not afraid?

Defense teams in the PDAF cases have employed enormous legal elbowing in court to block and discredit Luy’s testimony, following a theory that Luy and the state witnesses operated the scam without the knowledge of their boss Napoles. 

In his new motion, Estrada said Luy was a perjurer for having fabricated notarized government documents.

Estrada’s lead counsel Flaminiano earlier tagged Luy as an unrepentant fabricator for having faked signatures on a scale he has never seen before in his 60 years of litigation experience. 

Estrada’s lawyers have denied that their attempts to discredit Luy are driven by their fear over the weight of his testimony.

Luy had said he fabricated liquidation documents and forged signatures “upon the instructions” of Napoles. The fabrication was needed to feign implementation of the NGOs’ ghost projects. – Rappler.com