Now passportless, hard-to-find Napoles purchases airline tickets

Janet Napoles at the Inquirer offices. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Fugitive businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles purchased P184,985 worth of Philippine Airlines tickets and made transactions through her credit card traced to the Discovery Suites in the Ortigas district in Pasig  Saturday morning, according to the National Bureau of Investigation.

Information received by the NBI from an informant at the credit card company said Napoles used her credit card to purchase PAL tickets worth P74,567.87 and PAL Express Eco in Pasay City P44,510, and  PAL – Pasay P65,907.54. The informant said some of the tickets could be for international travel.

“The purchases for PAL tickets using Napoles credit card were done on line,” the informant said.

The informant also said that another transaction for P1,540 was paid to Airphil Insurance  at the PAL office in the Charter building in Makati City.

The informant also said that a transaction detail showed that the same credit card of Napoles was used to pay a Discovery Suites bill for P27,165.78., also Saturday morning.

The transaction detail according to the informant showed the credit line was declined twice, before it was finally approved.

The informant, who claimed she wanted to help in the arrest of Napoles, requested not to identify the credit card’s issuer bank.

The credit card detail also showed that another transaction for P32, 000 to pay the hotel was also declined, also on Saturday morning.

“Due to the system decline, the informant called up Napoles and claimed she talked to her,” the NBI source said.

The informant said she personally talked to Napoles at 9 a.m. Saturday after the last transaction for the Discovery Suites was declined by the system.

The informant said she called up Napoles listed number in the credit card company’s  records to verify several earlier transactions.

The informant said that based on credit card records Napoles was at the hotel on August 7, 8, and 11, few days before a warrant for her arrest was issued by a Makati City Court.

Another earlier transaction also showed that on July 25, 2013 the card was also used to purchase a PAL ticket.

The NBI source said the hunt for Napoles continues and several agents continue to scour areas where she was supposedly sighted.

The source said  teams of agents have been to Tagaytay, Bulacan and Pangasinan to respond to tips which they had assessed as “reliable.”

“We get calls and some of them were pranks calls, but leads that we think credible are being pursued,” the NBI source said.

The Court of Appeals on Friday froze the bank accounts of Napoles.

The freeze order covers the bank accounts of members of Napoles’ family, those of her other relatives and of the non-governmental organizations  that she allegedly used to divert P10 billion in lawmakers’ pork barrel allocations to those bank accounts over the last 10 years.

Among the bank accounts are those of Napoles’ daughter Jo Christine, brother Reynaldo Lim and relatives Ronald, Jaime, Jeane, James Christopher and John Christian.

Also frozen were the bank accounts of JLN Corp. employees-turned-whistle-blowers Benhur Luy and Merlina Suñas, and those of Luy’s parents Arthur and Gertrudes, as well as those of Napoles’ business associates.

The court recommended no bail for Napoles and her brother Reynald Lim for serious illegal detention of principal whistle blower Benhur Luy.