Cost of Napoles court dates cut in half, says PNP

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MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine National Police has cut by half its expenses for pork barrel scam-accused Janet Lim-Napoles, particularly for her trips to the Sandiganbayan.

From a P100,000 allocation for her court dates, the PNP is now spending P50,000 for the trip from Fort Sto. Domingo in Laguna to Quezon City.

The PNP said it reduced the number of policemen assigned to escort her to the antigraft court from the original 120 to around 50 to 70 escorts.

This is aside from the P150,000 monthly expenses for her food, guards, fuel, electricity and other operational expenses at the detention facility.

PNP spokesperson Chief Supt. Reuben Theodore Sindac told reporters in a briefing in Camp Crame the expenses are sourced from the operational and agency reserve fund of the PNP.

As for the stay of Senators Bong Revilla, Jinggoy Estrada and Juan Ponce Enrile in Camp Crame, around P40,000 is spent for each trip to the court.

The PNP also spends the same amount for Enrile’s trips to the Asian Eye Institute in Makati City.

According to Sindac, P27,000 is set aside for food of more than 100 policemen while P13,000 is allocated for the vehicles and fuel.

“We always presume the highest level of threats since they are high profile detainees,” the official explained.

In case of Enrile’s stay at the PNP General Hospital, he gets his room, worth P500, for free since he has Philhealth coverage.

Sindac said the 90-year-old senator’s blood pressure on his arraignment day was at 140/60 while his pulse rate was at 65 beats per minute.
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