JLN employees offered immunity to testify?

MANILA - The camp of businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles on Tuesday said employees of JLN Group of Companies were allegedly being offered immunity from prosecution if they will testify in the pork barrel scam. Speaking to ANC, lawyer Lorna Kapunan blasted lawyer Levito Baligod, counsel of whistle-blower Benhur Luy, for being an "ambulance chaser" and for running after JLN employees to get more witnesses. "A certain Atty. Benipayo together with Atty Baligod (are) going around the employees and getting their statements. Their job is to get the truth. Their job is not to perjure. Their job is to help the NBI and the justice secretary ferret out the truth. Unfortunately, what they are doing is not helping in the investigation because if you have a whole horde or crowd of witnesses and 10 or 15 of them are perjured, where is the credibility of the NBI? Because they themselves have turned already. I don't know who these are. All I am saying is the issue of credibility should not be assumed. The issue of did they give their testimony freely or voluntarily should not be assumed especially since we have text message of other employees who have said that they were offered immunity from arrest which were supposed to be served yesterday," she said. In the interview, Kapunan said Napoles denied that she set up 20 fake non-government organizations that served as conduits of billions of pesos in lawmakers' pork barrel funds. "I do not know if she has knowledge. Right now, she is saying she does not. She did not set it up. Whether she has knowledge or not, we are in the process of ascertaining. Most certainly if they have on file all the documents of these NGOs, she is not involved,. Her name is not there," she said. She said it was whistle-blowers Benhur Luy and Merlina Sunas who got the signatures of Napoles' household helpers, drivers and employees to become the presidents of these NGOs. “This Benhur and this Suñas went around to get their signature, saying na para sa tulong natin ito sa mga naghihirap. So they signed… they are saying that they do not know. They did not know that their names are being used by Benhur and Suñas. They were just signing papers para tumulong sa mga nangangailangan,” she said. The lawyer stopped short of accusing Luy and Suñas of masterminding the scam, saying she also wants to know the truth. She noted that she also filed a case on the alleged misuse of agricultural funds by Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap during the Arroyo administration. ANC, September 3, 2013