A JUDGE on Tuesday sentenced businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles to life imprisonment—or at least 40 years in jail—in connection with the serious illegal-detention charges filed against her by her cousin and pork-barrel-scam whistle blower Benhur Luy two years ago.
Judge Elmo Alameda of the Makati Regional Trial Court 150 found Napoles guilty of conspiring with her brother Reynald Lim to detain Luy in a house in Lapu Lapu Street in Magallanes Village, Makati City, from December 2012 to March 2013.
Alameda ordered Napoles to pay Luy P100,000 in moral damages.
He also ordered Napoles detained at the Women’s Correctional Facility in Mandaluyong City and the case against Reynald, who is still at large, archived.
Napoles arrived in court for the promulgation before 2 pm.
Luy did not attend the promulgation but his mother Gertrudes and a relative did.
“God is good. There is still justice in the Philippines,” Gertrudes said.
Napoles refused to comment on the decision but her lawyer Bruce Rivera said they were considering filing a motion for reconsideration.
“We can always appeal. At this point we are in a little bit of shock, but we respect the decision of the court,” Rivera said.
The illegal-detention case is separate from the plunder charges filed against Napoles, tagged as the mastermind of the P10-billion pork barrel scam, with the Sandiganbayan. Napoles aside, Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Ramon Revilla Jr. and Jinggoy Estrada have also been indicted for their alleged involvement in the scam.
Alameda said the prosecution was able to establish that Luy was illegally detained from Dec. 19, 2012, to March 22, 2013.
“Janet ordered the detention of Benhur on suspicion that he was defrauding her of her collections from the allocated PDAF [Priority Development Assistance Fund] of certain legislators,” Alameda said in his decision.
“Without hesitation and getting orders from Janet, Jojo held Benhur captive against his will which lasted for three months. The detention of Benhur deprived him of his liberty.”
Alameda said that while Benhur was under detention, Napoles had all the opportunity to order his brother Reynald to release him but did not.
“Instead, she opted not to be visible and in fact disappeared from the scene after the December 19, 2012 incident. She cannot feign ignorance of the whereabouts and actual condition of Benhur because the places where he was brought and detained belonged to her. She [Napoles] also ignored the pleas of Benhur’s family to release him,” Alameda said.
“Clearly, Janet had ample opportunity to order the release of Benhur if she wanted to but she never did. She did not make any effort to perform an act to detach herself from the conspiracy to commit the crime that would exempt her from criminal liability. Clearly, she willingly agreed to be part of the conspiracy with her brother Jojo [Reynald]. Her inaction can be construed as assent to their evil deeds.”