Businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, wanted for two weeks before surrendering to President Aquino on Wednesday evening, was just "basically in the NCR (National Capital Region) area" the whole time, DILG Secretary Mar Roxas said early on Thursday.
Roxas, in an interview with radio station DZMM, said that based on brief statements from Napoles on Wednesday, she never left the country, and in fact never left Metro Manila. She had confounded the police and the National Bureau of Investigation ever since a warrant for her arrest was issued two weeks ago.
On Wednesday, hours before Malacañang announced her surrender, President Aquino announced a P10-million bounty for her arrest.
The reward offer came amidst rumors that three yachts that Napoles had supposedly used in the past were found missing from the Manila Yacht Club earlier this week. It also came in the face of the failure of the NBI to locate and arrest the businesswoman.
Roxas said the reward offer for Napoles was effectively rescinded by her surrender.
The Bureau of Immigration had insisted that Napoles was still within the country, but also acknowledged that they had been coordinating with Indonesian and Malaysian authorities, alerting them of the possibility that Napoles might flee to ports there.
Roxas did not offer any further details on Napoles' whereabouts these past two weeks, other than to say that initial information gathered on Wednesday suggested that she was never far from Philippine aithorities and agents.
Earlier in the week, NBI agents also reportedly checked on credit card activity traced to a hotel in Pasig City, but there was no confirmation as to whether this produced any solid leads.
