Sandiganbayan orders Napoles jailed at correctional

ONE DOWN, MORE TO GO Janet Lim-Napoles listens to the verdict by the Makati Regional Trial Court for the serious illegal detention of her former finance officer and confidant, Benhur Luy, in the first of several cases lodged against her which blew wide open her alleged criminal activities in the P10-billion pork barrel scam. NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

MANILA, Philippines–She did not want to go where she was ordered to be in prison after her conviction on Tuesday.

But the Sandiganbayan on Wednesday ordered the transfer of accused pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles to a correctional facility after she received a life sentence in a case charging her with illegal detention.

In a press briefing, Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang announced that the Sandiganbayan Third Division had denied the request of Napoles to remain at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City.

The court, in effect, ordered the transfer of Napoles to the Correctional Institution for Women (CIW) in Mandaluyong City, where she was ordered jailed on Tuesday by the Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC), which convicted her.

“The court resolved to grant the motion of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) to transfer the person of Napoles to the Correctional Institution for Women in light of the supervening events of her conviction by the Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Makati for the crime of the serious illegal detention with the corresponding penalty (of life imprisonment),” said Cabotaje-Tang, reading from a resolution.

The Third Division issued the order as it has required Napoles to be present in her bail hearing for plunder over the pork barrel scam.

Cabotaje-Tang, also the Third Division chair, said the court’s decision to transfer Napoles’ custody was in accordance with existing circulars issued by the Supreme Court regarding the detention of convicted individuals.

‘Convenience of the court’

Earlier in the day, a lawyer for Napoles claimed to have the convenience of justices in mind when she asked the Sandiganbayan to let her remain in Camp Bagong Diwa.

Napoles’ lawyer Stephen David said it would be “very inconvenient” for the justices to hold court hearings for his client in the Correctional Institution, since the BJMP requires that hearings for convicted prisoners be held within the jail facility.

“It’s for the convenience of the court,” David told justices of the Third Division at the resumption of the hearing on Napoles’ bail petition.

In Malacañang, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda deferred to the prosecutors to respond to Napoles’ move to remain at Camp Bagong Diwa.

The Makati RTC Branch 150 on Tuesday meted out to Napoles a prison term of up to 40 years, in effect a life sentence, for detaining her finance officer-turned-whistle-blower Benhur Luy for three months, from December 2012 to March 2013.

Napoles’ brother and coaccused, Reynald “Jojo” Lim, remains at large.

State prosecutors insisted that regardless of the ongoing trial in the Sandiganbayan, the Makati RTC’s order to have Napoles detained at the Correctional Institution should stand.

“This is an entirely different case,” a prosecutor told the justices.

Napoles and her brother detained Luy after they reportedly found out that he was having separate business transactions involving the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), a pork barrel of lawmakers.

David said they would make a formal request before all the three divisions of the antigraft court where Napoles was charged with plunder and graft: The First Division with Sen. Jinggoy Estrada; the Third Division with Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile; and the Fifth Division with Sen. Bong Revilla.

Estrada, Enrile and Revilla are detained in connection with the pork barrel scam involving the diversion of PDAF allocations to ghost projects and bogus nongovernment organizations set up by Napoles.

Unusually cheerful

Napoles, it was observed, took extra care with her appearance in public on Wednesday, after receiving her life sentence.

Appearing as usual with about a dozen security escorts, Napoles was unusually heavily made-up. She also did not use the dark shades and windbreaker she usually wears to cover her face every time she is brought to court.

She also appeared unusually cheerful.

At one point in the hearing, she looked at a group of reporters across from her, smiled and pointed out her made-up face and said: “Importante ang puso (What’s in the heart is important)” and “May karma (There is karma).”

Afterward, she laughed and briefly bantered with reporters before she was escorted out of the courtroom. She said she slept well as “my conscience is clear.”

David told reporters that Napoles was with her husband and children in Camp Bagong Diwa on Monday after the Makati RTC gave its verdict.

“Of course it was gloomy,” David said, adding that Napoles put up a brave front in front of her family.

To appeal ruling

Saying the court ruling “was expected anyway,” David said Napoles would appeal the ruling before the RTC.

“Even if convicted, one is not automatically incarcerated,” he said. He claimed there have been cases when suspects on bail were still allowed to remain free after they were convicted, so long as they “double the bail” while their case was on appeal.

David also said the life sentence should not affect the Sandiganbayan’s hearings for Napoles’ bail petition, saying they will avail themselves of legal remedies to reverse the trial court’s verdict.

Then a subject of a manhunt in connection with the illegal detention of Luy, Napoles surrendered to President Aquino on Aug. 28, 2013, in Malacañang.

Aquino later escorted her to the Philippine National Police in Camp Crame.

It all started when lawyer Lorna Kapunan told Lacierda on the phone that her client, Napoles, had wanted to surrender to the President.

Lacierda met with Kapunan, and Napoles’ husband Jimmy in Makati, and then they proceeded to Heritage Park in Taguig, where they were approached by Napoles. They all drove to Malacañang.–With a report from TJ Burgonio and Marlon Ramos

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