Napoles to have separate cell in Makati City jail
MANILA, Philippines—Interior Secretary Mar Roxas said Thursday night that Janet Lim-Napoles would be given a “temporary special room” inside the Makati City Jail separate from other female inmates, dismissing earlier reports that she would be made to join 52 other inmates in a dormitory-type cell.
“We learned that in the female section, there are 103 female inmates yet there are only two prison cells. We cannot mix her with other inmates just to be sure of her safety,” Roxas told reporters outside the city jail.
Roxas joined Philippine National Police Chief Allan Purisima and other police and jail officials in an inspection of the 1,900-square meter city jail.
“It is plain common sense that Napoles knew a lot of things and she is at the center of this controversy. We don’t wish to endanger her life,” he said.
Roxas said one of the risks that the PNP and the BJMP had to consider was the information that one inmate at the jail was related to Napoles.
“We want to give her the chance to be able to reveal important information and evidence and help the teams investigating the scam,” he said.
Roxas refused to reveal exactly when Napoles would be transferred from Camp Crame to the city jail, citing security reasons.
But he said he had ordered the deployment of additional personnel to be scattered in the perimeter of the Makati City Jail to boost the facility’s security head of Napoles’ transfer.
He said the BJMP would also assign a few men as Napoles’ own prison guards.
Asked about the petition of Napoles’ camp to transfer her to Camp Bagong Diwa or keep her at Camp Crame, Roxas said the DILG would not decide on that.
“We will only abide by the orders of the court,” he said.
Roxas said one of the Makati City Jail’s two special rooms could serve as Napoles’ detention cell.
Napoles, now being investigated for allegedly engineering massive diversion of the government’s pork barrel funds to private accounts, was arrested on a charge of serious illegal detention filed by her former aide who blew the whistle on the fund anomaly.
