Napoles not going anywhere unless court says so–PNP

Janet Lim-Napoles. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine National Police (PNP) on Sunday said it would not initiate the transfer of Janet Lim-Napoles to a regular jail after some legislators assailed the “special treatment” being accorded to the alleged mastermind of the P10-billion pork barrel scam.

Napoles has been detained at Fort Sto. Domingo, the training school of the PNP’s Special Action Force (SAF) in Santa Rosa City in Laguna province, since Sept. 1 last year on charges of illegal detention filed by her former employee, Benhur Luy, who blew the lid off the scam that allegedly involved members of Congress.

Chief Supt. Reuben Theodore Sindac, PNP public information office chief, said the police would leave it to the Makati Regional Trial Court to determine where Napoles should be held.

He said the PNP had no authority to initiate legal action to move Napoles from the SAF facility because it was the court that had ordered the police to detain her there.

“The PNP will support and comply with the order of the court,” said Sindac in a text message.

A unit of around 10 SAF troopers has been assigned to guard Napoles, who occupies a bungalow inside the police camp. The bungalow also served in the past as the detention quarters of former President now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada, his son Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, Sen. Gringo Honasan and former Moro National Liberation Front chair Nur Misuari.

Asked how much the PNP was spending daily for Napoles, Sindac said SAF officials had yet to submit an expense report from the time Napoles was first brought to the camp on Sept. 1 last year.

But in a previous interview, Sindac had said Napoles was to be served the same food as the SAF personnel undergoing training at the camp.

Asserting that her transfer to a regular detention facility was “long overdue,” Akbayan party-list Rep. Walden Bello said moving Napoles from the police camp was “necessary to dispel any impressions she is being coddled by the government.”

Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga, an administration ally, said it was deplorable that while poor Filipinos were living in “unsanitary conditions, the pork barrel queen… is staying in a well-ventilated room with a sala.”