VACC to police: Don’t be afraid to arrest 3 senators

By: Erika Sauler, TJ Burgonio - 11 years ago

Dante Jimenez, founding chair of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

A crime watch group is forming citizen arrest teams to help bring in Senators Jinggoy Estrada, Juan Ponce Enrile and Ramon Revilla Jr., who were indicted in the Sandiganbayan on Friday for plunder over the P10-billion pork barrel scam.

Estrada, Enrile and Revilla are likely to be arrested on Monday at the earliest after the plunder cases filed against them by the Ombudsman are raffled off to a Sandiganbayan division.

“We are now forming the … citizen arrest teams,” said Dante Jimenez, founding chair of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC).

“Just in case the Sandiganbayan issues warrants of arrest, the VACC will be posting these teams where [the three senators] live,” he said.

“[Our aim is] to give moral support to the police and send a message that we shouldn’t be afraid,” he added.

Plunder is a nonbailable offense and is punishable by life imprisonment.

Warrants are expected to be issued by the court after the case raffle.

Drilon’s appeal

But Senate President Franklin Drilon said the Sandiganbayan should extend courtesy to the Senate by not arresting the three senators right in the session hall.

Drilon, however, advised Estrada, Enrile and Revilla to submit to the process and not resist arrest once the Sandiganbayan sheriff comes to arrest them.

Charged along with the three senators were six other people, including businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, the alleged mastermind of the diversion of lawmakers’ allocations from the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) to phantom projects from which the legislators allegedly received tens of millions of pesos in kickbacks over a period of 10 years up to 2012.

‘Institutional courtesy’

Drilon said he would not allow the Sandiganbayan sheriff to arrest Estrada, Enrile and Revilla right in the Senate.

“As a matter of institutional courtesy … I will not allow the law enforcement officers to serve the warrant in the session hall or in the Senate,” Drilon told reporters.

He said he does not have to formally request the Sandiganbayan not to arrest the three senators right in the Senate.

“No formal request. I assume I will be informed. Once [the sheriff’s] there, I will request that it be done outside,” he said.

Legal remedies

Drilon advised the three senators to use the remedies available to them to avoid arrest and detention.

“I expect them to respect the process, avail [themselves] of the remedies. They can file a petition for bail,” he said, adding that in nonbailable offenses a court could grant bail if the evidence is weak.

Among the steps the three senators can take is bringing a motion for reconsideration challenging the finding of probable cause against them.

They can also go directly to the Supreme Court to ask for a review of the Ombudsman’s resolution to nullify the findings against them.

Drilon said he did not believe the three senators would go into hiding.

“I don’t think they will resist arrest or go into hiding. I know them. I don’t think they will do that,” he added.

No Senate custody

Drilon said that the Senate would not take cognizance, or ask to be given custody, of the three senators. He said that remedy applied only to bailable offenses.

“Clearly, in … nonbailable offenses, the cognizance is not [an available] remedy. Just to demonstrate, you have not heard of any effort to place former President [Gloria Macapagal-] Arroyo in the custody of anyone because [she] is accused of a nonbailable offense,” he said.

90-day suspension

Drilon said the Senate would comply with a future Sandiganbayan order preventively suspending the senators for 90 days.

He said the senators cannot discharge their functions during those 90 days, but can file bills, attend public hearings and sign committee reports.

If they are heads of committees, they have to yield the chairs to their deputies, Drilon said.

Drilon said the arrest of the three senators would not affect the Senate’s work. “We will continue to function. Next week, we will pass about six bills,” he said.