THE Sandiganbayan on Monday denied the request of accused pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles to be detained at the National Bureau of Investigation, ordering her transfer instead to Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City from the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City.
The court’s First and Third Divisions, in separate orders, granted the prosecution’s motion to have Napoles, who is accused of plunder, detained at Camp Bagong Diwa.
Napoles had been serving a 20- to 40-year sentence in the Correctional Institution for Women after a Makati court convicted her of serious illegal detention, but asked to be transferred to the NBI after the Court of Appeals overturned her conviction this month.
But First Division acting chairperson Geraldine Econg said the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, not the NBI, had the mandate to take custody of persons detained who were awaiting investigation or trial.
She added that a plea for safety and security was “premature at this stage.”
Napoles, in her motion, said threats had been made on her life, particularly after the government said it would consider her as a state witness in the pork barrel scam.
Napoles’ lawyer, Stephen David, said they will appeal the decision of the Sandiganbayan.
Napoles and former senator Jinggoy Estrada are facing plunder and multiple counts of graft in connection with the alleged pork barrel scam before the two courts.
The Sandiganbayan Third Division turned down the request of Napoles–where former senator Juan Ponce Enrile was her co-accused. The court’s Fifth Division on the same matter was not yet resolved as of press time Monday–where former senator Ramon Revilla Jr. is Napoles’ co-accused.
“The NBI is neither a police station nor a jail,” Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang, who chairs the Third Division, said, citing Section 3, Rule 113 of the Rules of Court, that the accused shall be delivered to “the nearest police station or jail without unnecessary delay.”
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Monday assured the public that the reinvestigation of the Department of Justice into the multibillion-peso pork barrel fund anomaly would not be selective, unlike it was during the previous administration.
“Rest assured that while I am serving as secretary of Justice, we will be guided only by evidence. There will be no selective justice or miscarriage of justice just like what happened during the time of my predecessor,” Aguirre told reporters.
Aguirre made the statement even as he denied the claim of detained Senator Leila de Lima that the revival of the probe into the pork barrel scam with Napoles as a state witness would be used to pin down opposition lawmakers.
But Aguirre assailed De Lima, saying she should know better about selective prosecution since this is what she did when she was Justice secretary, filing cases only against three opposition senators, when a dozen senators and more than 100 congressmen had been implicated by Napoles.
Aguirre also said that the possibility of Napoles becoming a state witness in new pork barrel cases would not result in her release from detention.
“Napoles will remain in detention. This [reinvestigation] will not affect the pending cases in four divisions of the Sandiganbayan even if we agree to turn her into state witness,” he said.
Aguirre said that to become state witness, Napoles has to meet the qualifications set by law– that she should not be the most guilty of the crime and that her testimony must be indispensable for the cases to stand.
He said the eligibility of Napoles for coverage of the witness protection program could be established only after she submits a new affidavit to the Justice department.
Aguirre met last week with Napoles’ lawyer to discuss a proposal to turn her into a state witness.
In a separate interview, David hinted that former President Benigno Aquino III could be implicated in the pork barrel reinvestigation, but offered no other details.
