THE Sandiganbayan Seventh Division has convicted businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles, one of her employees, and two former executives of a government firm of violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (RA 3019) in connection with the alleged fraudulent release of P1.7 million from the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel allocation of Sen. Joel Villanueva.
The 111-page decision dated June 5, 2025 was written by Associate Justice Georgina D. Hidalgo with Associate Justices Ma. Theresa Dolores C. Gomez-Estoesta and Zaldy V. Trespeses concurring.
Found guilty together with Napoles were Technology Resource Center (TRC) deputy director general Dennis Cunanan, TRC group manager Maria Rosalinda Lacsamana, and Masaganang Ani Para sa Magsasaka Foundation, Inc. (MAMFI) officer Evelyn de Leon.
They were all sentenced to six to ten years imprisonment with perpetual disqualification from holding public office.
In addition, Napoles was held civilly liable for ending up with the PDAF sum and was ordered to indemnify the government by returning the full amount.
However, the anti-graft court acquitted them on two other charges for malversation of public funds on the ground that the totality of the evidence presented by the prosecution fell short of the required proof beyond reasonable doubt.
The court likewise ordered the issuance of alias warrants of arrest against three other accused who remain at large.
Based on the graft information filed in 2022 by the Office of the Ombudsman, the defendants were accused of conspiracy to defraud the government by securing the release of the PDAF of then Rep. Villanueva and funneling the money into MAMFI, a private foundation created by Napoles, for the sole purpose of serving as conduit for siphoning off government funds.
“From the time MAMFI was created, it can be deduced from both testimonial and documentary evidence adduced by the prosecution that it was created for the purpose of defrauding the government,” the Sandiganbayan said.
While the defendants challenged the sufficiency of evidence presented by the prosecution, the court said all the material allegations in the graft case and the common design of all accused to commit the crime were established by evidence.
“Without doubt, the concerted acts of accused Cunanan, Lacsamana, Napoles and De Leon caused undue injury to the Philippine government and at the same time, extended unwarranted benefits to MAMFI, an NGO created by accused Napoles herself,” the court noted.
It pointed out that the whereabouts of the money remained unaccounted for and the only certainty is that “not even a single centavo of the total amount of P1,170,000… made its way to any legitimate government project. This amount is the undue injury caused to the government by the accused,” the court declared.
While its was the PDAF allocations of Villanueva that was the source of the missing P1.7 million, the lawmaker himself was not charged as the prosecution said it found no probable cause against him.
