Sleepless night in jail for Abalos

Benjamin Abalos INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Mandaluyong Mayor Benhur Abalos said he almost broke down in tears upon seeing his father sitting at the end of a wooden bunk in a windowless room measuring three-by-three meters, with only a small fan to alleviate the heat.

Former Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr. had spent a “restless and sleepless” first night in detention, the mayor said.

He appealed to the courts to allow his father to go out on bail since he was now 77 years old and “the evidence against him was weak.” The young Abalos also urged a speedy resolution to the election sabotage case that his father faces together with former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

The former Comelec chairman was locked up at the detention center of the Southern Police District on Tuesday.  Election sabotage is a non-bailable offense.

“The no-bail (provision) is not absolute,” said the mayor in a phone interview with the Inquirer. “If it was absolute, then they can charge and jail anyone they want. And my father might be detained for five years while we still prove to the court that he is innocent,” he said.

He noted that his father’s bail would not jeopardize the trial,  citing Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes’ opinion that the elder Abalos was not a flight risk.

The mayor, a lawyer himself, said it was possible to wrap up the hearings against his father in two months.