AP FILE PHOTO
SAN PEDRO, Laguna, Philippines — Members of an anti-corruption group in Laguna voiced doubts Thursday that Janet Lim Napoles was truly taken ill after the alleged mastermind behind the P10-billion pork barrel scam was rushed to a hospital in the wee hours due to abdominal pains and vomiting.
“We don’t mind her being rushed to a hospital as long as this is not used as an excuse to skip the Senate hearing,” said Ronalyn Franca, one of the organizers of an alliance of students and teachers who are opposed to congressional pork barrel barrel and call themselves Unibersidad ng Pilipinas Laban sa Baboy.
“She might do another GMA,” Franca said, referring to how former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who has managed to stay out of jail while facing charges of electoral fraud and plunder, because she was ill and needed to be hospitalized.
Arroyo, who was recently slapped with another case of plunder at the Office of the Ombudsman for alleged misuse of P900 million from the Malampaya fund that is also linked to the fake non-governmental organizations of Napoles, is currently detained at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City.
Napoles was rushed to the Southern Luzon Hospital and Medical Center, a private facility in an upscale commercial center in Sta. Rosa City, Laguna at 1:20 a.m. Thursday.
A source in the Philippine National Police said Napoles, who is detained at Fort Sto. Domingo, headquarters of the Philippine National Police Special Action Force, started complaining of abdominal pain and numbness of her right hand at 9 p.m. Wednesday.
Based on hospital findings, Napoles’ pain was caused by kidney stones. She was brought back to her detention place after about two hours.
PNP spokesman Reuben Theodore Sindac said in a phone interview that Napoles did not require additional medical attention at the moment.
He also denied rumors that Napoles was trying to escape the Senate hearing by pretending to be sick, saying these were just “spook-culations.”
Sindac declined to comment on security preparations for the Senate hearing on November 7 to which Napoles has been summoned.
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