<\/p>\n
It was not really a threat but more of an advice from the senator. Santiago knows the power of the senators and congressmen who are allegedly involved in the pork barrel scam. They are believed to have a private army capable of killing Napoles to avoid being prosecuted for plunder. <\/span><\/p>\n Santiago, a former magistrate, said that Napoles would be “better off to come clean and tell the truth as it would be her best defence against a possible attempt on her life.” <\/span>She added that the senators accused of plunder with her may be planning to kill her to ensure she did not testify against them. The three principal senators accused are Enrile (tanda<\/em>), Revilla (pogi<\/em>) and Estrada (sexy<\/em>). Whistle blower Benhur Luy has earlier testified that Napoles used such names to refer to the 3 senators. <\/span><\/p>\n Napoles proclaimed her innocence, but refused to talk about the alleged involvement of lawmakers in the racket for which she, three senators and 34 other people, including five former congressmen and five ex-agency chiefs, are now facing plunder charges in the Office of the Ombudsman.<\/span><\/p>\n Santiago appeared at the hearing to lecture Napoles on the right against self-incrimination. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMany people want you dead. That\u2019s why I\u2019m telling you as a lawyer to tell us what you want to say so that they can no longer have you killed,\u201d Santiago told Napoles. <\/span><\/p>\n Strong evidence <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBut if you tell us what you know now, they [the senators] will no longer have a motive to kill you because your motive is already there. And that is under oath, affidavit or even a dying declaration, for all you know, and a dying declaration is very strong evidence,\u201d Santiago said. <\/span><\/p>\n “I invoke my right” [against self-incrimination]<\/span><\/p>\n Napoles has initially said “I don’t know” to all questions hurled at her. But after consulting with lawyers from the Public Attorney’s Office, her answer to all questions became “I invoke my right.” <\/span><\/p>\n In the House of Representatives, most congressmen were disappointed although they already expected that Napoles would not reveal anything. <\/span><\/p>\n If it could be proven later that she had lied, the authorities could charge her with perjury because Napoles testified under oath. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano asked the Senate blue ribbon committee not only to cite Napoles in contempt, but to file perjury charges against her for lying at a formal inquiry.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>Since she did not come clean on the pork barrel scam while enjoying VIP treatment in a police camp, the Department of Justice should also consider moving her to a regular jail, Sen. Francis Escudero said. (Inquirer.net)<\/strong> It was not really a threat but more of an advice from the senator. Santiago knows the power of the senators and congressmen who are allegedly involved in the pork barrel scam. They are believed to have a private army capable of killing Napoles to avoid being prosecuted for plunder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2910"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2910\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"