Judge orders Napoles to justify hospital stay

Janet Napoles. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The judge handling the serious illegal detention case against Janet Lim-Napoles on Wednesday gave the suspected pork barrel scam mastermind up to 2 p.m. Thursday to substantiate her claim that she needs to spend more time in the hospital.

“Her stay is already overdue,” Judge Elmo Alameda of Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 150 said during Wednesday’s hearing on the motion of the Napoles’ camp to extend her hospital confinement at Ospital ng Makati.

Prosecutor Christopher Garvida pointed out at the court hearing that Napoles, who  underwent a hysterectomy to remove her uterus and ovaries on April 23, has been confined for 21 days, five days short of the number of days the doctors of Ospital ng Makati had recommended.

“(Her counsel) is not competent to make a manifestation on this matter. I’d rather listen to the doctors who have been attending to Mrs. Napoles,” Garvida said, noting that the motion of the Napoles’ camp for the extension of her hospital confinement “has no factual basis.”

Doctors to witness stand

The opposition of the prosecutors prompted Judge Alameda to ask the defense counsels of Napoles to call Napoles’ attending physicians to the witness stand.

Alameda gave the lawyers of Napoles at least a day to “substantiate their motion.”

“After that, I will issue my ruling,” Alameda said, cautioning the defense lawyers: “Let us settle this matter by 2 p.m. tomorrow (Thursday). All eyes are on us,” he said.

In their motion, Bruce Rivera, counsel for Napoles said that since the procedure done on her was open surgery, a complete bed rest was necessary for her full recovery.

Rivera told the court it would be impractical for the government to spend P120,000 just to transport her every week for medical checkups from Fort Sto. Domingo to St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City, where most of her physicians are based.

He added that Napoles’ doctors have tight schedules preventing them from seeing Napoles in places other than their respective clinics at St. Luke’s.