De Lima backs perjury, contempt raps vs Napoles

Janet Lim-Napoles. INQUIRER.net photo

MANILA, Philippines – Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said Saturday she supported moves by Senators Alan Peter Cayetano and Francis “Chiz” Escudero to charge Janet Lim-Napoles with perjury and contempt following her testimony before the Senate blue ribbon committee last Thursday.

“Senators Alan’s and Chiz’s proposed moves or courses of action would be well justified. I’m all for the filing of perjury and contempt raps versus Napoles, given her evasive posturings, if not downright lies, during the Senate hearing,” De Lima said in a statement.

De Lima accompanied to the hearing the the whistle-blowers in the P10-billion pork barrel scam led by Benhur Luy, who readily countered denials made by Napoles.

Aside from denying outright alleged deeds related to the scam, Napoles also repeatedly invoked her right against self-incrimination and said she would answer the allegations against her in court.

De Lima, however, was cautious about Escudero’s proposal that the Department of Justice consider moving Napoles to a regular jail from her detention inside Fort Sto. Domingo, a police training camp, in Sta. Rosa, Laguna.

“As to the proposed transfer to a regular jail facility, we need to be very certain and will thus re-assess the security concerns attached to such kind of a detainee vis-a-vis the gravity of the charges against her and her VIP cohorts” in the plunder cases, De Lima said, referring to several senators, congressmen, members of their their staff and former government officials who have also been implicated in the alleged diversion of congressional pork barrel to private pockets.

De Lima said she would take up the transfer issue with Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, who has jurisdiction over the Philippine National Police and the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, Napoles’ current custodians, and ultimately with President Benigno Aquino III.

“The government should ask the DOJ to put her in an ordinary jail. We should not spend for her security since she’s going to deny [accusations] anyway,” Escudero had said in a television interview.

The blue ribbon committee chairman, Senator Teofisto Guingona III, said he and his colleagues would study the transcripts to consider the filing of perjury and contempt charges.

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