CONVICTED businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles was transferred on January 4 to the Correctional Institute for Women (CIW) in Mandaluyong City from the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) facility in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City.
Jail Chief Inspector Editha Roallo Balansay wrote a letter to Sandiganbayan Associate Justice Edgardo Caldona, informing him that the BJMP already complied with the mittimus issued on December 27, 2018 regarding Napoles’ jail transfer.
“The undersigned respectfully inform[s] your Honorable Court that on January 4, 2019, the said PDL Janet Lim Napoles was properly turned over to CIW, Mandaluyong City, escorted by 12 STAR Team escorts from BJMP – NCRO,” she said.
The letter was received by the Sandiganbayan First Division clerk of court Monday (January 7) at 8:35 a.m.
Just last Friday, the First Division held a hearing on Napoles’ most urgent motion to set aside the mittimus order ex abundanti ad cautelam. She argued that the mittimus order was “invalid” since it was signed by Associate Justice Edgardo Caldona who was not a member of the First Division.
However, First Division chairperson Efren de La Cruz clarified that if the division chairperson and the other senior justices are on leave, the junior member can sign the order. “There is nothing wrong with the mittimus,” he stressed.
Napoles was convicted on December 7 for violating R.A. 7080, otherwise known as the plunder law, along with Richard Cambe, the staff of former Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla. They were sentenced to reclusion perpetua with perpetual disqualification from holding public office. (Czarina Nicole O. Ong)