Napoles ordered to be transferred to Camp Bagong Diwa

MANILA, Philippines — The Sandiganbayan on Monday ruled that alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles should be transferred to the detention facility in Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig.

In a resolution dated May 15, 2017, the anti-graft court’s First Division said that Napoles “should be held as detention prisoner and not allowed to be moved, removed or relocated from the Camp Bagong Diwa which is under the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology” until further orders from the court.

This resolution in effect denied Napoles’ request to be transferred to the National Bureau of Investigation jail because of alleged death threats to her life.

The Sandiganbayan Third Division also denied Napoles’ plea to move to NBI but it granted the prosecution’s request to transfer her to Camp Bagong Diwa.

Napoles also asked the anti-graft court’s Fifth Division to transfer her to the NBI but it said that there is no sufficient evidence in her threat claims at Camp Bagong Diwa.

The alleged pork barrel scam mastermind earlier asked for NBI’s protection, citing that threats on her life are getting worse as the Department of Justice considers turning her into a state witness in the multibillion-peso pork barrel fund scam.

Napoles has been detained at the Correctional Institution for Women (CIW) in Mandaluyong City since April 2015 after she was found guilty by the Makati Regional Trial Court of illegally detaining her second cousin and former employee Benhur Luy.

The Court of Appeals last May 5 however, cleared Napoles from the illegal detention case, saying that the evidence  of the prosecutors were insufficient but she remained detained at CIW.

Napoles is facing at least five plunder cases and multiple graft cases before the Sandiganbayan in connection with the pork barrel scam giving the anti-graft court sole jurisdiction over her.