Napoles fails to get legal relief from CA

The Court of Appeals. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles failed to get immediate relief from the Court of Appeals.

Napoles’ camp went to the Court of Appeals after the Makati Court dismissed her bid to post bail on charges of serious illegal detention.

The appeals court’s Special 7^th Division instead ordered Benhur Luy and Makati RTC Branch 150 Presiding Judge Elmo Alameda to file their comment on the petition for certiorari filed by Napoles last April 10, 2014.

“Without necessarily giving due course to the petition, Respondents are hereby directed to file a comment to the said petition within 10 days from notice. Petitioner may file a reply a reply within five days from receipt of notice,” the two-page resolution dated May 14, 2014, which was penned by Associate Justice Noel Tijam, said.

Concurring with the resolution are Associate Justices Edwin Sorongon and Priscilla Baltazar-Padilla.

The November 2013 ruling issued by the Makati Court, which was questioned by Napoles, stated that bail bid was denied because the evidence presented by the prosecution is strong.

At the same time, the court also said that the prosecution was also able to establish that Napoles and her brother conspired to detain Luy.

Luy filed the case against Napoles and her brother and co-accused Reynald Luy Lim claiming the two allegedly detained him from December 2012 until March 2013 when he was rescued by the National Bureau of Investigation to prevent him from spilling the beans on the multi-billion pork barrel scam.

Napoles denied Luy’s charges and said he voluntarily went on a spiritual retreat due to his drug addiction problem.

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