De Lima: Surrender 'preempted' NBI operation vs. Napoles

On the night Janet Lim-Napoles surrendered to President Benigno Aquino III, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) was in the middle of an “operation” to arrest her, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said Thursday.

However, De Lima, who has direct supervision over the NBI, stopped short of saying that Napoles's surrender preempted the NBI operation.

"Ang alam ko may operation din sila (NBI) kagabi, kahapon hanggang gabi. I would not really know if you can call it priniempt o na-preempt, pero it would appear na ganoon nga,” De Lima said.

“Parang mayroon silang hina-hatch kagabi, pero nabalitaan na lang nila nag-surrender na pala," she added.

De Lima refused to elaborate on the NBI's operation so as not to compromise the ongoing search for Napoles's brother, Reynald Lim, who is also being hunted by authorities in connection with the serious illegal detention case filed against them.

The Justice secretary admitted hearing about Napoles sending feelers early Wednesday, the day the controversial businesswoman surrendered to Aquino. But despite this information, the NBI still pushed through with the operation, De Lima said.

"Whether or not she surrendered, tuluy-tuloy ang operations ng NBI kasi feelers lang ang alam ko kahapon ng hapon," De Lima said.

The NBI has deployed 12 teams and tapped dozens of its regional forces in the hunt for Napoles, who, together with Lim, is charged for illegally detaining Benhur Luy, the whistleblower in the alleged P10-billion pork barrel scam where Napoles is the supposed mastermind.

Napoles's firm, JLN Corp., was said to operate several non-existent foundations that solicited funds from the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) — or pork barrel — of lawmakers.

De Lima said after learning about the feelers, she consulted with NBI Director Nonnatus Rojas, who suggested to push through with the operation that night.

"Kasi you would not know kung magma-materialize ang surrender," she said, adding that she has not heard from presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda since he informed her of Napoles's surrender feeler.

"Wala na akong nalaman kung ano usapan about the surrender kaya tinuloy pa rin namin ng NBI iyong supposed operations nila," De Lima said.

De Lima said she has already instructed the NBI to review the timeline of Napoles's surrender.

De Lima believed that even if Napoles had not surrendered, the NBI would have closed in on her anyway. She added that the NBI had kept a low profile in searching for Napoles and Lim to prevent compromising the operation. — KBK, GMA News