Go hard on Napoles

“We need to see more corrupt government officials in jail.

It should trouble us that Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra offered the possibility of pork barrel queen Janet Lim Napoles’ possible extradition to the US where she was recently charged and is to stand trial in money laundering cases.

Guevarra should be the last to offer the information as we await the resolution of the cases filed against her in the Philippine courts. Extraditing Napoles and her cohorts in the pork barrel scam that tainted the administration of former President Noynoy Aquino, in which many if not majority of the country’s leaders have benefited from ghost projects lined by Napoles to squeeze the national coffers, would lay to waste promises of a clean government then and now.

If pursued honestly and truthfully, the Napoles list would sweep the national leadership of corrupt personalities who have caused the miseries of the common folk denied access to education, housing, health care and better services by the politicians’ corrupt ways.

Extraditing Napoles to the US, where she would be tried and is likely to receive sentence, would deny us justice.

Napoles’ cases in the US are offshoots of the plunder cases she is facing here. She would not have had monies to launder in the US, mainly to fund the extravagant ways of living and the clothing business of her daughter Jeane Catherine, if she had not played the biggest part in the Priority Development Assistance Fund scam that fattened the pockets of not a few politicians, many of whom have either jumped ships or are openly showing support to President Rodrigo Duterte.

Guevarra should also not lay to waste the chance for Napoles to talk. We need to know the masterminds behind the pork barrel scam. She could not be alone in her transactions with the government’s finance and budget offices.

“The US Department of Justice is looking into Napoles’ money laundering.

We need to see more corrupt government officials in jail. It should start the cleansing of our nation if we are serious about our talk of change.

We will not mind seeing almost the whole Senate and more than half of Congress in prison. They can have their sessions there. They can party all they want to as long as we rid our government of them.

We will not mind if we see presidents, former and present, in jail if they are tainted. That is how it should be.

But Guevarra seems soft on Napoles. Or he could be soft on the US.

Guevarra cited an existing Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty between the US and the Philippines that could pave for Napoles’ extradition.

The US Department of Justice is looking into Napoles’ money laundering that may have included her children Jo Christine, James Christopher and Jeane Catherine.

Napoles’ brother Reynaldo and his wife Ana Marie have also been indicted by a federal grand jury for conspiracy to commit money laundering, domestic money laundering and international money laundering.

The US justice department claimed Napoles had some $20 million. It is believed she had amassed this amount from the pork barrel fund scam and transmitted the money to her US bank accounts. She purchased real estate properties and dozens of luxury vehicles.

US sources also reported Napoles and her family members attempted to quietly liquidate their assets in the US and tried to funnel the money back to the Philippines. She also has other accounts in the US and the United Kingdom.

The US government froze $12.5 million worth of Napoles assets a couple of years ago.

The Bureau of Immigration’s (BI) refusal to release information on Napoles’ daughter’s travel that was uncovered only after news of the US court’s action against the pork barrel scam queen is suspect.

The BI is attached to Guevarra’s Department of Justice.

A saving grace to this issue is the Sandiganbayan’s refusal to have Napoles extradited to the US. The Sandiganbayan wants Napoles to remain detained at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City as she is facing five counts of plunder and multiple graft and malversation cases.

Sandiganbayan presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang should remain firm on her decision to keep Napoles in the country as she remains on trial in Philippine courts.

The good Justice Cabotaje-Tang could assure the people of true justice.