THE Department of Justice yesterday denied that Janet Lim Napoles has been released due to good behavior credits from the Correctional Institute for Women (CIW).
“Janet Lim Napoles has not been released. She remains at the Correctional Institute for Women in Mandaluyong City,” Justice Undersecretary Markk Perete said in a text message.
The Correctional Institute for Women is among the seven penal colonies in the country that is managed and supervised by the Bureau of Corrections, an attached agency of the justice department.
Perete said he has asked BuCor officer-in-charge Melvin Ramon Buenafe to explain the inclusion of Napoles’ name as among those who have been released under the Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) scheme.
“We have asked the BuCor for an explanation on this. As of the moment, no information yet,” Perete added.
Another DOJ official, Undersecretary Deo Marco, said he has also given verbal instructions to Buenafe to find out who was the Napoles released by the BuCor on Nov. 12, 2018 whose sentence for a purported rape case has already allegedly expired.
Marco has been designated by Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra as head of the interim oversight committee in charge of the administrative supervision of the BuCor.
Marco said he failed to get a categorical answer from the BuCor personnel from whom he had inquired about the news reports.
“There was talk that Napoles’ inclusion in the list may have been intentional. Some said there might have been a clerical error or it might have been due to human error. Right now, I am giving them the benefit of the doubt,” he said.
Sen. Richard Gordon, chairman of the Senate committee on justice investigating the controversies related to the implementation of the GCTA law, has earlier said that Napoles was on the list of heinous crime convicts who had been released by the BuCor.
Gordon said Napoles was number 275 in the group of convicts charged with rape who were freed on Nov. 12, 2018 due to expiration of sentence. No additional details were provided as to when Napoles allegedly committed the crime and when she was convicted.
