Napoles arraigned on Monday

MANILA, Philippines - The Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 150 yesterday denied for lack of merit the petition of businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles for a bill of particulars and for the deferment of her arraignment scheduled for Monday for the case of serious illegal detention filed by her cousin Benhur Luy.

In a one-page order, Judge Elmo Alameda said Napoles’ lawyer Lorna Kapunan did not raise new matters that could warrant a reconsideration of the denied petition for a bill of particulars and petition for deferment of arraignment.

Napoles, along with her brother Reynald, is facing charges for the serious illegal detention of her former employee Luy.

“Moreover, the arguments in the motion have already been thoroughly and exhaustively passed upon by this court in the assailed order. Accordingly, this court finds no necessity of elaborating or discussing further the matters stated in the motion,” Alameda’s order read.

The court stressed that in the absence of any restraining order issued by the Court of Appeals after the lapse of 10 days from the filing of the Petition for Certiorari by Napoles, there is no compelling reason to defer her arraignment.

On Tuesday, Kapunan filed a motion asking that her client be allowed to post bail, arguing that the evidence is weak.

Last Friday, Alameda denied the motion to suspend proceedings and the motion for a bill of particulars earlier filed by Napoles.

In her urgent motion for bill of particulars, Napoles argued that the charge is defective and vague. Napoles argued that she is not sufficiently informed of the crime she is being charged with. She said since the charge is vague, she is not in a position to defend herself.

In his 6-page order, Alameda said charges of serious illegal detention filed against Napoles and her brother Reynald are sufficient.

“Evidently, the information sufficiently allege that the accused are private individuals; they detained Benhur Luy and deprived him of his liberty; their act of detaining Benhur is illegal; in the commission of the offense, the detention lasted for more than three days. Clearly then, the information accurately and clearly allege all the essential elements of the offense charged to enable accused suitably to prepare for her defense. The information also meets the constitutional guarantee that accused Janet Lim-Napoles is informed of the nature of the accusation leveled against her,” said the order.

Kapunan also filed an 18-page motion to defer her arraignment, saying she has a pending petition for certiorari with the Court of Appeals (CA).

But in his order, Alameda said the merely pending petition for certiorari before the CA will not automatically suspend the proceedings.

Alameda added that if the court fails to proceed with the arraignment, he as presiding judge may be slapped with an administrative case as no temporary restraining order has been issued.

Alameda also denied the motion to suspend proceedings filed by Reynald Lim through his lawyer Raul Vasquez. Lim remains at large.