Son decries attempt to arrest ill Salonga

A team of policemen from the Eastern Police District tried to arrest former Senate President Jovito Salonga and his son Steve Monday at their residence in Valle Verde III in Pasig City in connection with an estafa case, only to find the 92-year-old man seriously ill in bed.

Pasig Regional Trial Court Judge Danilo Buemio issued the arrest warrants for an estafa case (Criminal Case No. 147044-PSC) filed by Dr. Restituto Buenviaje in connection with the sale of a condominium in Tagaytay City in 1997.

“The warrants were released on February 2 but we got a copy only last week,” Police Inspector Aron Samal, one of the arresting officers, told the Inquirer.

Steve Salonga on Monday cried harassment after the police tried to arrest his father.

“My father is 92 years old, he is sick, he is senile and he is bedridden,” Steve said. “I told the police, if you want to arrest my dad, go ahead. But you have to be responsible for his health.”

Steve said the sheriff hesitated, and was in a quandary on what to do with the arrest order. Steve then volunteered to go with the arresting team so he could personally explain his father’s medical condition to the judge. The court discharged Steve after 30 minutes.

Samal said they went to the house of the Salongas around 10:30 a.m., unaware that the young Salonga had already posted P40,000 bail and Judge Buemio had issued a release order on February 14.

“(Jovito Salonga) was looking so thin and sick. He was taking fluids from a tube of an apparatus which I don’t know,” he said.

Samal said the warrant was “considered served” without making an arrest, considering the respondent’s medical condition.

In an interview with the Inquirer, Steve said his father was suffering from Alzheimer’s or dementia, a condition which Steve had told the Pasig RTC about back in October 2011.

At the time, Steve said he presented in court a neuropsychological report from Dr. Lourdes Ledesma of Medical City attesting that his father could not stand trial.

He recalled having suggested to the court to send a medico-legal expert to examine Salonga’s condition.

“The issue here is not me but whether you can try someone, like my father, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s. How can anyone be tried and accorded due process under that circumstance?” Steve said.

Pasig RTC records showed that the case stemmed from a May 29, 1997, joint-venture agreement between the Salongas and Jebson Corp. owned by Ferdinand Bañez to develop a 2,935-square-meter property in Tagaytay owned by the Salongas into townhouses and condominiums.

Buenviaje filed the P11-million estafa case when the development did not materialize and Jebson Corp. failed to turn over one of the townhouses he had bought.

According to Steve, the estafa case filed by Buenviaje against Salonga and Bañez in 1997 was dismissed by the Office of the President and the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB) that same year.

Steve said his father did not personally know Buenviaje and only met the complainant during the launch of the real estate project.

In his complaint, Buenviaje said he was induced by Salonga to buy a condominium from the developer. He bought a unit in 1997 but the construction, however, had yet to be finished.