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Janet Napoles to return to Correctional and welcome new year there

Lian Buan

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Janet Napoles to return to Correctional and welcome new year there

Gerard Carreon

The anti-graft court Sandiganbayan says the convicted plunderer failed to prove that the women’s prison ‘poses grave threat to her life and security’

MANILA, Philippines – Janet Lim Napoles, alleged pork barrel scam mastermind and a convicted plunderer, will return to the Correctional Institution for Women (CIW) in Mandaluyong and will welcome the new year there.

The anti-graft court Sandiganbayan issued a commitment order stating that the transfer should happen on Thursday, December 27. But the order was received by the court’s Sherriff’s Office only on Friday, December 28, past 1pm.

According to the Sherriff’s Office, the transfer will happen before Friday ends.

Napoles is detained at the Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig. She was transferred there from Correctional in May 2017 after the Court of Appeals (CA) acquitted her of serious illegal detention.

She returns after a year, following her conviction for plunder in the Bong Revilla plunder case. Revilla was acquitted but she and Revilla’s former staff Richard Cambe were convicted. Napoles and Cambe are appealing their conviction.

The Sandiganbayan First Division denied Napoles’ request  not to be transferred to Correctional.

“For failure of accused Napoles to substantiate with concrete and convincing proof that her continued detention at the CIW poses grave threat to her life and security, other than her self-serving allegations, the instant motion is hereby denied,” the First Division said.

The First Division also cited a circular of the Supreme Court’s Office of the Court Administrator (OCA) saying that convicted persons shall be convicted to national prisons immediately, despite an appeal, in order to decongest regional prisons. 

Napoles has been in jail since September 2013 when she was detained at the Fort Sto Domingo in Laguna while on trial for serious illegal detention.

Napoles has 4 more plunder charges related to the pork barrel scam; and 7 other sets of graft related to other lawmakers. (READ: PDAF cases, Duterte-time: Napoles confident of freedom ‘in less than 2 years’) – Rappler.com

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Lian Buan

Lian Buan is a senior investigative reporter, and minder of Rappler's justice, human rights and crime cluster.