De Lima not keen on transferring Napoles to regular jail

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima has closed the door for Janet Lim-Napoles (in photo), alleged mastermind of the P10-billion pork barrel scam, becoming a state witness. INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS

MANILA, Philippines—It’s not easy to just transfer alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles to a regular jail, especially when she might just decide to spill the beans on her operations, Justice Secretary Leila De Lima said on Tuesday.

De Lima said that calls for the government to transfer Napoles to a regular jail might be “valid and legitimate” but would not be easy to implement.

Napoles has been detained for six months now at the police camp at Fort Sto. Domingo in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, after a Makati regional trial court ordered her transfer there from the Makati City jail for security reasons.

De Lima said her office was studying carefully proposals for Napoles to be transferred to a regular jail.

“(The transfer of Napoles) needs to be studied for its repercussions because until now Mrs. Napoles is not yet talking and there might be a chance that she would talk and that singular opportunity may be put to waste if that central figure on the issue wants to talk,” De Lima told reporters.

“If she is transferred to a less secure area, we might just blow that chance. How can she talk if something happens, so it’s not easy,” De Lima said.

Asked whether Napoles had sent feelers that she wanted to talk, De Lima said she did not know.

“But even if I knew, I would not say,” she added.

Asked on Napoles’ bid to have surgery for her ovarian cyst and be confined at the hospital, De Lima said she would leave that to the court’s discretion although she would ask government prosecutors whether they would like to oppose her bid.

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