Prosecution urged to check Napoles’ computer to prove authenticity of Luy files

A magistrate of the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court urged prosecutors to look into the personal computer of the company owned by the alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim to help prove their claim that the external hard drive of star witness Benhur Luy has not been tampered with.

 

At a hearing on Thursday, Sandiganbayan Fourth Division chairman Associate Justice Jose Hernandez asked the prosecution panel if they have ever tried examining the personal computer of JLN Corporation, a company owned by Napoles, from which, Luy claims to have copied the files in his external hard drive.

 

“Have you ever tried looking into this JLN Corporation computer?” Hernandez asked.

 

“No, Your Honor. We have no possible access,” state prosecutor Jacinto Dela Cruz responded.

 

Hernandez then suggested that the prosecution request for a search warrant from the court "so that we will know whether this [computer] exists or not."

 

After a brief silence, Dela Cruz responded: "We'll discuss that with the [prosecution] panel".

 

Luy had earlier testified that all the files contained in his external hard disk drive were copied from an iMac computer at JLN Corporation. Luy said he copied the files to his external hard drive in 2012 as he had been starting to work from home and from the field.

 

Luy also said that only he and Napoles have access to that iMac computer as it supposedly has a password. He earlier told the court that the password to the computer was “plainbeauty”.

 

Napoles’ camp had been repeatedly pointing out that the files in Luy’s external hard drive were not authentic and may have been tampered.

 

An official from the National Bureau of Investigation who conducted a forensic examination on Luy’s hard drive, on the other hand, said the files in the hard drive are unaltered. 

 

Luy’s hard drive allegedly contained spreadsheet files, soft copies of vouchers, receipts, photos and other documents that detail the transactions of Napoles and her alleged fake foundations with several lawmakers.

 

Records of the amounts of kickbacks the lawmakers received from Napoles in exchange for allocating their Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel to the latter’s alleged fake foundations were also allegedly in the hard drive.

 

Napoles’ lawyer Dennis Buenaventura had earlier told reporters that their camp might present to the court JLN Corporation's iMac computer as counter-evidence to show that Luy's files have been altered. — JDS, GMA News