Napoles laments daughter’s indictment

Jeane Napoles. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Detained businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, the suspected mastermind of the P10-billion pork barrel scam, on Friday decried the indictment of her US-based daughter Jeane Catherine for tax evasion.

“It’s OK. I’m leaving it up to God,” Napoles told reporters before the start of the weekly hearing of her bail petition in the Sandiganbayan.

“It (filing of the case) was surprising. But I wish it was just me,” she said.

In its Aug. 15 resolution, which was released only on Thursday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) recommended the filing of criminal charges against Jeane Catherine for her alleged failure to pay P17.9 million in taxes in 2011 and 2012.

The DOJ said Napoles’ daughter should have remitted taxes to the government after she bought a $1.28-million condominium in Los Angeles, California, and two agricultural lots in Bayambang, Pangasinan.

Napoles said she has yet to speak to her youngest daughter who is studying in the United States.

“I am not allowed to use a mobile phone inside (the detention facility),” she said.

Mocking her rosary

Napoles, who is locked up at the jail facility of Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig City, while awaiting trial for three separate plunder charges and a number of graft cases, turned emotional as she lamented how some members of the media allegedly made a mockery of her rosary.

Reporters covering the proceedings at the Sandiganbayan had seen Napoles holding the beige-colored religious item, which she claimed was given to her by St. Pope John Paul II during his visit to the Philippines in 1994, while attending her bail hearings.

“If they want, they can make fun of me. But please spare my faith,” she said, crying.

She said a broadsheet (not the Inquirer) came out with an editorial cartoon which depicted her rosary having peso signs as its beads and even replaced the image of the crucified Jesus with a drawing of the devil.

Stephen David, one of Napoles’ lawyers, said Jeane Catherine did not declare income and file income tax with the Bureau of Internal Revenue “because she is just a student.”

“This is really saddening. Jeane Catherine is just a student in California. She is a holder of an F1 visa, which is a student visa. That means she’s not allowed to work in the United States,” David said.

The lawyer stressed that the properties Jeane Catherine purportedly owned were bought by her parents and were just registered under her name.

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