Judge won’t postpone Napoles arraignment

Janet Lim-Napoles. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The Makati court handling a serious illegal detention case against Janet Lim-Napoles on Friday denied a plea for the deferment of her arraignment on Monday.

Makati Regional Trial Court Judge Elmo Alameda, in a one-page decision, ordered the arraignment to push through, saying he found “no compelling reason” to defer it.

Napoles is accused of detaining her cousin and former employee Benhur Luy, who later alleged that his former boss was running a   multibillion-peso pork barrel scam in connivance with  ranking lawmakers and government officials, including former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile.

In the same order, Alameda also denied Napoles’ motion for reconsideration of his Sept. 13 decision to reject her lawyer’s plea for a “bill of particulars.”

The judge said there were “no new matters” raised in the motion which could prompt him to reconsider his earlier decision.

Napoles is charged together with her brother Reynald Lim, who is still at-large.

Luy came out with the pork barrel exposé after he was rescued by authorities in March. He said he was detained for nearly three months in various properties owned by Napoles—including the Bahay San Jose retreat house run by priests in Magallanes Village, Makati City.

Luy claimed Napoles and her brother detained him to prevent him from squealing on the scam.

Napoles’ counsel, Lorna Kapunan, had argued in the earlier motion that the charges were not “specific” and were therefore faulty, as they did not show how Napoles was linked to the retreat house.

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Janet Napoles and the pork barrel scam