Was Benhur Luy in need of rescuing?
This question cropped up on Friday during a hearing in a Makati City court of a petition for bail filed by businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, who is facing charges of serious illegal detention of Luy.
Luy’s family has accused Napoles and her brother, Reynald Lim, of conspiring to detain Luy from December 2012 to March 2013 in at least six houses and condo units owned by Napoles. These included a retreat house run by priests in Magallanes Village in Makati City.
Luy is the chief whistle-blower in the plunder case filed by the government against Napoles, the alleged mastermind of a P10-billion pork barrel scam that has implicated 38 people, including three senators.
Luy is Napoles’ cousin and her former employee.
Acting on a complaint filed by Luy’s family in the justice department, the National Bureau of Investigation rescued Luy and arrested Lim on March 22 at the South Garden unit of Pacific Plaza Towers in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.
Grilled by Kapunan
At the bail hearing, the prosecution presented NBI supervising agent Rodante Berou, the rescue team leader, to speak on the rescue operation.
But Berou ended up being grilled by Napoles’ lawyer, Lorna Kapunan, who claimed the NBI operation was “not” a rescue operation but an attempt to entrap Napoles’ people.
During direct examination, Berou admitted that when he first approached Luy during the rescue, a trembling, wide-eyed Luy had protested, in Filipino: “I don’t want to go with you. Kuya Jojo [Lim] isn’t doing anything wrong.”
Berou said Luy later willingly went with the NBI after his parents, Arturo and Gerturdes, who helped the NBI in its operation, talked to him.
Pouncing on this, Kapunan asked Berou: “Did that not prompt you to ask [Luy] why? He already said he did not want to come, meaning ‘Why am I being rescued?’ Who were you rescuing him against? Did that not prompt you to abort the operation?”
No warrant
Kapunan also questioned the NBI for conducting the operation without a warrant of arrest and a search warrant.
Berou maintained that warrants were not needed because the NBI had confirmation from Luy’s family that “[Lim] is currently committing the crime” of detaining Luy.
Berou also said then NBI Director Nonnatus Rojas had ordered the rescue.
On March 22, Berou said the Luy family went ahead of the NBI agents to the South Garden unit to verify if Lim and Luy were there.
It was only after the family confirmed that the two were there that NBI agents moved into the unit, according to Berou.
Berou said Lim initially tried to block the NBI agents at the door but allowed them in when they introduced themselves.
Chest pains
Berou said Luy was not handcuffed or guarded when the agents saw him and that Lim was not armed.
Kapunan asked Berou: “So there were no acts being done showing [Luy] was threatened, forced against his will, or deprived of liberty?”
Kapunan also expressed incredulity that the NBI had failed to arrest Napoles—who had arrived shortly after—when they arrested Lim.
Berou narrated that after Luy was escorted out, Lim began to feel chest pains and needed to take his medication.
Shouting woman
At that point, a group of five people, led by a “tall woman” shouting “unpleasant words,” barged into the unit, looking for Luy. The group accused the agents of not having warrants and took videos of them.
The “tall woman” turned out to be Napoles. She was accompanied by her husband Jimmy and daughter Jo Chris.
Berou said the group and the NBI agents left simultaneously as Lim had to be rushed to a hospital.
Kapunan later showed the media a security camera footage showing Lim, freely followed by Luy, walking from a basement parking lot up to the South Garden unit. This was on the evening before the NBI rescue.
“If [Luy] was being restrained, why did he not run? The exit is right there,” Kapunan said.
Religious retreat
Kapunan insisted that Luy was on a voluntary “three-month solitary retreat” at the time his family claimed he was being detained.
“How can they say he wasn’t allowed to go out when he and [Lim] were always eating out together?” Kapunan said.
She also made her staff read out a Feb. 19 letter supposedly from Luy to his parents telling them he was in a prayer retreat.
“He was asking for forgiveness for stealing P300,000 and P5 million [from Napoles]. To [stop] the charges against him, he volunteered to go on retreat,” Kapunan said.
“Join me in my prayers and in fasting … for the forgiveness of the Napoles family, especially Ma’am Jenny, for my sins, or our sins,” the letter said in Filipino.
The prosecution is expected to present eight witnesses, including Luy, to support its case.
Kapunan said the defense would present four witnesses to prove Luy was in a religious retreat and not detained against his will by the Napoles camp. With a report from Nancy C. Carvajal
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