Court orders detention of Napoles in Laguna

By Ritchie A Horario/Manila Times

Janet Lim-Napoles will be transferred from the Makati City Jail to Fort Santo Domingo in Santa Rosa, Laguna, which authorities said was a more secure facility.

Judge Elmo Alameda of the Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 150 yesterday decided on Fort Santo Domingo for Napoles’ detention quarters on the recommendation of director Roberto Fajardo, the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group’s chief for the National Capital Region (CIDG-NCR).

Napoles’ lawyer, Lorna Kapunan, had asked the court to detain her client either in Camp Crame or at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City.

But Fajardo said she will be safer in Fort Santo Domingo since it is also the training centre of the Philippine National Police’s (PNP) Special Action Force (SAF).

Napoles, the central figure in the pork barrel scandal, surrendered to President Aquino in Malacanang on Wednesday night, several hours after the president announced a P10mn bounty for her.

She was wanted on charges of illegal detention along with her brother Reynald Lim.

From the presidential palace, Napoles was driven under heavy escort to the Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters in Camp Crame where she was fingerprinted, photographed and given a medical check-up.

On Thursday night she was transferred to the Makati jail.

At the hearing to determine where Napoles will be detained, state lawyers asked Fajardo if Napoles could be brought to the court if she is in Fort Santo Domingo. Fajardo said it would only take from 45 minutes to an hour to bring Napoles to Makati from Santa Rosa.

“From what I know, since she will be implicating a lot of government officials the threat is high,” Fajardo said.

He said they inspected the Santa Rosa facility where former president Joseph Estrada and Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) chairman Nur Misuari were detained.

Fajardo recommended the facility after Makati jail warden Chief Inspector Fermin Enriquez admitted he could not assure the safety of Napoles.

Enriquez said the jail only has 117 security staff, 52 of who belong to an augmentation force from the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) and the PNP.

The jail holds 545 inmates, 104 of them women. It has only 23 female guards, Enriquez said.

Enriquez conceded it was possible that people out to harm Napoles could pose as visitors to get inside the jail.

Also yesterday, members of Youth Act Now, the broadest anti-pork barrel youth alliance in the country, blew whistles and banged on pots and pans in noise barrages in Metro Manila and various provinces to protest what they said was the “fake surrender” of Napoles and the VIP treatment the government was giving her.

“The Aquino administration is overdoing the theatrics. Mr President, no one believes your make-believe story about Napoles’ surrender. We are in fact, even more enraged with the fact that one of the country’s top villain is being pampered by top government executives,” Kabataan Rep Terry Ridon said in a statement.

“The youth and the people have again come out today to remind the government that we’re as vigilant as ever, and we’re watching every move the Palace is making,” he said.

The rallies were held in the University of the Philippines in Diliman, UP Manila, Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), Taft Avenue, Intramuros, T M Kalaw, Morayta and Katipunan Avenue in Quezon City.

As the furore over the pork barrel scam continues, the ruling Liberal Party said President Aquino will not help his allies who will be found liable in the P10bn Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) scam that benefited fake non-government organisations.