Pimentel questions legality of ‘hospital arrests’
Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—As they await their fate, Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Revilla Jr. have kept netizens abuzz on whether they would seek detention in a hospital suite, or in a house at a military camp.
Given the trend to grant hospital or house arrest to high-profile detainees, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III is opening an inquiry to decide once and for all whether to make this a policy or scrap it altogether.
Hospital and house arrests are “informal arrangements’’ because the law provides regular jail for everyone, but they are “alternative mechanisms’’ that should be looked into, he said.
Such forms of detention have become “rampant’’ in recent years, but the question of their legality is another matter, said Pimentel, a lawyer.
“What’s the legal basis for this practice? Do we want this practice to continue? If the answer is yes, then let’s make sure it’s legal. If the answer is no, then let’s make it clearly unlawful. Either way, we might need a law,’’ he said in an interview.
If it’s unlawful, he said, the committee on justice and human rights would issue a pronouncement that it’s unlawful and “must be stopped,’’ the senator said.
“If we want this to persist, let’s have a law authorizing this,’’ he added.
Apart from detention in a hospital or in a camp, some individuals are also held inside the national police headquarters in Camp Crame, or inside the National Bureau of Investigation, he observed.
The three senators’ co-respondent in the pork barrel scam, Janet Lim Napoles, has been held inside a police training camp in Laguna purportedly for her own safety since her arrest last year on a separate illegal detention charge.
This has raised protests since she clammed up at the Senate inquiry into the scam, and set off calls for her to be thrown in a regular jail.
Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has been detained in the state-run Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City while on trial for plunder and electoral sabotage charges.
Estrada’s own father, deposed President Joseph Estrada, was placed under house arrest in his villa next to a military camp in the mountains of Tanay, Rizal while being tried for plunder after his ouster in 2001.
Senator Estrada has said he was prepared to go to a regular jail instead of asking to be held a special detention facility when the Ombudsman actually files plunder and graft charges against them.
Lawyer Joel Bodegon said he and his client, Revilla, have not discussed this, saying any talk of detention was premature. Enrile has not issued a statement.
After announcing its decision to take the plunder case to trial, the Ombudsman has given the senators, Napoles and several other people accused with them an opportunity to file a motion for reconsideration.
Pimentel, chair of the committee on justice and human rights, said he would call the hearing after Congress resumes sessions on May 5.
He said the committee would invite officials from the Department of Justice, Department of Interior and Local Government, Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, Bureau of Corrections, National Bureau of Investigation, the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group of the Philippine National Police, judges and criminal law professors to get their views on the matter.
The goal is to firm up a legislative position with a view to crafting a law on the matter, he said. There are now relevant bills pending with the committee that warrant a hearing on the issue.
“I will pursue the subject matter, and feel the pulse of the common man as well as the experts on criminal law,’’ he said.
Pimentel agreed that the issue of whether senior citizens could invoke old age to ask for a special treatment would likely be raised in the hearing as well. Enrile is 90 years old.
He said the law doesn’t mandate special treatment. When one reaches 70, one is eligible for parole, but this has limitations.
“Parole has to do with generosity of the state. But for a grave crime, the state will not be generous,’’ he said.
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