MANILA – Alleged pork barrel scam queen Janet Lim Napoles has submitted to the Sandiganbayan the statement of a jail warden to bolster her allegation of “incidents of harassment, intimidation and threat” on her “life and security” which her lawyers are using to justify a bid to place her under the Department of Justice Witness Protection Program.
In a Manifestation of Compliance filed with the anti-graft court division handling the plunder case against former senator Ramon Revilla Jr. where she is co-accused, Napoles attached the Incident Report by Jail Chief Inspector Editha R. Balansag, detailing what transpired early morning of October 12, 2017, when some 40 Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) personnel forcibly entered Napoles’ cell.
Napoles through lawyer Stephen David submitted to court Balansag’s report after the Sandiganbayan justices, at the March 19 hearing, demanded details of her claim that her remaining under BJMP custody posed threats to her life and security.
Per Balansag’s Incident Report, a BJMP Greyhound Team of 40 personnel led by JSupt. Ma. Annie Espinosa arrived at about 5 am of October 12 at the Taguig City Jail and conducted a search.
“It was later known to me that the Greyhound Team entered the cell by cutting the chain/lock with the use of a bolt cutter and kicking off the door to open,” said Balansag’s report.
A body search was also conducted on Napoles “by a male jail officer in full battle gear,” wearing a Kevlar vest and “with long firearms, and wearing a mask.”
Balansag said the “the entire cell was searched and ended with the confiscation of some items to include personal belongings and important documents and the cutting and disabling of the CCTV security camera.”
The Greyhound Team “did not coordinate nor permitted the presence of the detailed ‘Star Team’ on duty, upon entering” Napoles’s cell and “during the conduct of the Greyhound.”
BJMP has been using the term Greyhound for its random searches and raids of certain detention areas in order to ferret out contraband from inmates, such as illegal drugs, cell phones, among others.
