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MANILA, Phippines – Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said her department will prevent the arrest of Benhur Luy, the whistleblower in the multi-billion-peso pork barrel scam, in the face of a warrant issued against him for qualified theft.
“We will not turn him over,” De Lima told reporters in an interview on Friday, July 19, the morning after Luy was officially put under the justice department’s Witness Protection Program (WPP).
De Lima explained that if the warrant of arrest will be served to Luy, the WPP will file the appropriate manifestation and motion in court that Luy is under their protective custody.
The Pasig Regional Trial Court issued the warrant of arrest against Luy after Janet Lim Napoles, the alleged brains behind the pork barrel scam, filed a case of qualified theft against him.
Napoles claimed that Luy allegedly stole P300,000 from her in December 2012 instead of depositing it to her bank account. She said Luy also secured loans totaling P5.5 million using her name and without her authorization.
In a text message to reporters, Napoles’ lawyer Alfredo Villamor said “there is nothing anomalous about the warrant of arrest against Mr Luy due to the qualified theft case against him.”
“It took almost 2 months before it was resolved by the Pasig City Prosecutors Office and more than a week before the Pasig RTC issued the warrant of arrest,” Villamor said hence there is “nothing hasty about the case and warrant in question.”
On Thursday night, July 18, Luy’s lawyer Levi Baligod confimed to Rappler that Luy already arrived at the Department of Justice around 3:30 pm, and his application for WPP was approved around 4:30 pm. Baligod said Benhur is now in the custody of the WPP.
READ: Pork scam whistleblower in DOJ custody
In a press conference on Wednesday, Napoles, through her lawyer Bruce Rivera, denied involvement in the supposed scam.
READ: Napoles ready to face probe on PDAF ‘scam’ – lawyer
Luy exposed that around P10 billion in the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) of some senators and congressmen had been channelled to bogus non-governmental organizations controlled by a syndicate headed by Napoles.
Rivera said his client is “ready to face any investigation” since Napoles now wants to have “a quiet life.”
“My family, especially my children, have already been dragged by the false and malicious reports of one newspaper who (sic) has the habit of sensationalizing stories at the expense of truth and fairness,” Napoles said in her statement. – Rappler.com
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