Bella to arrive today, lawyers ask transfer

More than two months after being served with an arrest warrant, Bella Ruby Santos is scheduled to arrive at the Mactan Cebu International Airport sometime this afternoon.

She will be escorted by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation in Central Visayas (NBI-7) who will present her in court.

Her lawyers are moving to transfer her from the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) to the Naga City jail.

The provincial jail in barangay Kalunasan, Cebu City houses some of Cebu’s world-famous dancing inmates.

CPDRC Acting Jail Warden Alger Comendador earlier offered Santos to become the inmates’ star dancer.

But Santos’ lawyer Julius Caesar Entice said they would ask the court to place Santos at the Naga City Jail which is less populated compared to the CPDRC.

Santos and her British boyfriend Ian Charles Griffiths are facing a non-bailable offense of kidnapping with homicide in relation to the murder of six-year-old Ellah Joy Pique last Feb. 6.

Ellah Joy’s father Renante, in an interview, opposed the possibility of detaining Santos at the Naga City Jail.

“In Naga City, there is a possibility that she may escape. That’s unfair,” Renante told Cebu Daily News.

He said he wants to meet Santos as soon as the latter arrives in Cebu today. “I want to meet her again. I miss her so much,” Renante quipped.

In a separate interview, lawyer Joan Saniel-Amit of the Children’s Legal Bureau (CLB) said they will definitely oppose any move to detain Santos at the Naga City Jail.

“That’s is improper. The defense should prove that there are sufficient grounds to place Santos inside the Naga City Jail instead of CPDRC,” Amit said.

The 35-year-old Santos was arrested by NBI-7 special investigator Arnel Pura inside a magazine store at SM Megamall in Mandaluyong Manila last Friday.

Pura said they are scheduled to leave the Ninoy Aquino International Airport at 3:30 pm today.

If she cannot make it in court in time, Pura said Santos will be brought to the NBI-7 office where she would stay until tomorrow.

Santos was detained at the NBI headquarters in Manila since she was arrested last Friday.

Among those who visited Santos were her sister Ana Marion Lalican and relative Concepcion Pardillo.

In a radio report Perla Bautista Erejano and Nating Engcallada, Bella’s mother and  grandmother respectively, said she was innocent of the crime.

Erejano said she talked with Bella by phone and heard her cry, though her daughter told her that she is okay.

Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia earlier vowed that Santos won’t be harmed in the CPDRC.

“Who would believe that she would be harmed there? For all we know she may become the star dancer there,” Garcia said.

Cebu Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale, who chairs the Provincial Women’s Commission, said she hopes that the truth will be served in the case. Ador Vincent Mayol, Reporter with Correspondents Carmel Loise Matus and Chito Aragon