MANILA, Philippines — The Sandiganbayan convicted businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles and former Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) undersecretary Jerry Ermio Pacturan over the diversion of P50 million in public funds to bogus non-government organizations and ordered them to pay back the government in a ruling promulgated on Friday.
Napoles was found guilty of 10 counts each of violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and malversation of public funds through falsification of public documents. Pacturan was convicted of 10 counts of malversation through falsification but acquitted of the graft charges after the court ruled that prosecutors failed to establish corrupt intent. Evelyn Ditchon De Leon was also convicted on three counts each of graft and malversation.
The case stemmed from the release of P50 million by the Department of Agrarian Reform to 10 Napoles-linked non-government organizations, which received P5 million each for supposed agricultural harvest development and livelihood projects that the Sandiganbayan found to be non-existent.
In its ruling, the anti-graft court gave full credence to the testimonies of whistleblowers Benhur Luy and Marina Sula, as well as local officials who testified that they neither received the projects nor signed the documents used to facilitate the release of the funds.
The court ordered Napoles and Pacturan to solidarily pay back the government up to P50 million, while De Leon was ordered to return up to P15 million. Napoles was also sentenced to prison terms for both graft and malversation, while Pacturan was sentenced for 10 counts of malversation through falsification