THE Supreme Court has dismissed another appeal of suspected pork barrel scam architect Janet Lim Napoles to annul a resolution of the Office of the Ombudsman indicting her for two counts of graft and two counts of malversation before the Sandiganbayan’s Third Division.
During its en banc session on Tuesday, the SC denied the petition of Napoles accusing Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales of committing grave abuse of discretion in approving the filing of another set of criminal case against her.
The high court ruled that Napoles failed to show any grave abuse of discretion committed by the anti-graft body.
“The Court deferred to the Ombudsman’s findings of probable cause in the absence of any grave abuse of discretion shown by petitioner [Napoles],” the SC through Public Information Office Chief Atty. Theodore Te said, in a media briefing.
Napoles’s appeal arose when she was indicted as one of the co-accused of Davao Del Sur Rep. Marc Douglas Cagas IV.
In its resolution, the Ombudsman found probable cause to file graft charges against Napoles and Cagas, in connection with the alleged anomaly in the lawmaker’s Priority Development Assistance Fund from 2007 to 2009 amounting to P11 million, which was alleged channeled to National Agri-Business Corporation and Technology Resource Center.
