http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2014/06/18/1336201/janets-hidden-wealth-hard-recover
MANILA, Philippines — It would be tricky and difficult but not impossible to recover supposed hidden wealth of businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles, accused of plunder for allegedly orchestrating the pork barrel scam.
Andres Bautista, chairman of the Presidential Commission on Good Government, explained that reclaiming stolen money and properties from a private individual may prove to be more challenging than that from an erring government official.
"Kung mahirap nang kunin ang isang ari-arian mula sa isang tao mas mahirap pa kung yung mga yun ay itinago nga sa ibang pangalan at kalimitan sa iba pang bansa," Bautista said in an interview with ABS-CBN aired Tuesday night.
Previous reports said Napoles is keeping various assets abroad especially in the United States and had been transmitting millions of dollars to accounts there. Her family is said to own P400 million in US properties including a hotel in Anaheim and a unit in posh Ritz Carlton condominium in Los Angeles.
Bautista's agency has been tasked to recover ill-gotten wealth of former President Ferdinand Marcos and had only made a few significant strides in the past decades. He said seizing Napoles' wealth would mean undertaking a years-long legal battle which can be further delayed by pleas from Napoles' lawyers.
"Kakasuhan yan iko-korte ang daming mga appeal maraming mga petitions for certiorari on every interlocutary order that will be issued by the courts," Bautista said. "Talagang matatagalan."
He explained that state prosecutors may not also be able to focus on the task as they are "overworked" with existing cases. Over 200 cases on the Marcos wealth are still held up in court, he said.
Bautista believes, however, that an administration's political will can make the search for wealth and its subsequent remittance back to the public coffers successful.
The Manila Regional Trial court imposed an asset preservation order against Napoles, her husband and three children as well as against her immediate kin in April stemming from a forfeiture case filed by the Anti-Money Laundering Council.
The Court of Appeals also ordered their bank accounts frozen in August 2013.
Napoles had denied being the mastermind of the multi-billion peso embezzlement racket on congressional funds, saying she is just an "ordinary businesswoman" who became a "victim" of the system. - Camille Diola
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