SC junks Napoles brother’s bid to stop arrest

MANILA, Philippines–The Supreme Court threw out the bid of Reynald Lim, brother of alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles, to stop the manhunt against him following the issuance of an arrest warrant for serious illegal detention filed by whistleblower Benhur Luy.

In a resolution made public Friday, the high court’s first division said Lim’s allegation that Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 150 Judge Elmo Alameda acted with inordinate hast in ordering his arrest “is at best, a conjecture without empirical basis.”

“It is evident from the order of Judge Alameda that the finding of probable cause was issued only after he reviewed the proceedings before the prosecutor and after he examined the documents presented,” the high court said.

The high court also found Lim’s motion for judicial determination of probable cause a “mere superfluity” since Alameda is required anyway by law to personally evaluate the resolution of the public prosecutor and the supporting documents.

“Further, there is nothing in the rules which require a judge to conduct a hearing before he issues an order finding existence of probable cause and order of arrest,” the high court said.

Lim and Napoles were charged for allegedly detaining Luy from December 20, 2012 to March 22, 2013 to prevent him from disclosing the businesswoman’s purported racket of siphoning off Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) allocations through ghost projects.

Authorities earlier offered P5-million bounty for Lim’s arrest.