New cells for 3 senators in P10B pork scam
DETENTION CENTER FOR V.I.P.s. A newly built bungalow in Camp Crame in Quezon City with four rooms measuring 32 square meters each will serve as the detention facility for Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Bong Revilla, who have been indicted for plunder in connection with the P10-billion pork barrel scam. A room has its own toilet, shower, ceiling fan and metal bed with foam mattress. NIÑO JESUS ORBETA
MANILA, Philippines—The smell of freshly painted rooms will greet lawmakers indicted for plunder in connection with the P10-billion pork barrel scam once they are taken to the newly constructed detention building at Camp Crame.
The Philippine National Police on Monday allowed members of the media to inspect the would-be detention rooms of Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Bong Revilla, ending weeks of speculations over the purpose of the construction of the building in the PNP Custodial Center.
Chief Supt. Reuben Theodore Sindac, PNP spokesman, said the four-room structure was originally built as barracks for the officials of the Custodial Service Unit (CSU) as part of the facility improvements at the PNP national headquarters in Quezon City.
“This is just a temporary detention facility. These rooms are not built for this purpose,” Sindac said as he led reporters to the bungalow.
He said the facility was supposed to be the officers’ quarters. “But because of last-minute changes and adjustments, the officers would no longer occupy the rooms to give way to the high-profile detainees.”
Sindac said it was still up to the Sandiganbayan where the lawmakers and their coaccused would be locked up, saying the PNP was merely readying its facilities should the antigraft court order their detention at Camp Crame.
Arrest warrants
The antigraft court is expected to issue arrest warrants for the 54 people charged with plunder and graft over the alleged misuse of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) after it raffled off the cases to its three branches on Friday.
“How long are they going to be detained here? It’s up to the court. We will comply with the court’s order,” Sindac said.
“Since maintaining jail facilities is not the primary duty of the PNP, we will make do with what we have,” he added.
While the PNP vowed not to give VIP treatment to the lawmakers, the detention rooms it prepared for the senators were obviously very different from the usual cramped jails.
Measuring 32 square meters each, the rooms are almost similar to studio-type apartments.
Each detention room has its own toilet and bath with a new shower, sink, toilet bowl and ceramic tiles.
The room’s main area has a ceiling fan and tile flooring. Its interior walls are covered with cream-colored paint.
It also has a kitchen sink with two wooden cabinets below it.
When the reporters visited the area on Monday, workers were still painting the outside walls and installing iron grills of the windows of the four detention rooms.
Special accommodation
“If you compare this to the regular city or provincial jails, you can say that this is a special accommodation for the senators,” said a junior police official who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal from his superiors.
“But the arrangement is understandable because the PNP cannot mix them with the terrorists and rebels who are also detained at the Custodial Center,” he said.
Three rooms have single metal beds with foam mattresses while the room at the end of the building has two double-deck beds.
Sindac said the fourth room may be used to detain women who were charged along with the three senators.
The detention building is just beside the maximum compound of the one-hectare Custodial Center where retired PNP Director General Avelino Razon Jr. and four other former police generals are detained in connection with graft cases.
Beside the structure is a newly built 64-square-meter multipurpose building where Enrile, Revilla and Estrada “might be processed once they are detained,” Sindac said.
He said it could also serve as a working space for the lawmakers if the court will allow them to hold office at the detention facility.
“They may also be allowed to receive visitors in this building,” Sindac said.
Adjacent to the detention facility is the CSU’s new administrative building.
The detention compound’s 3.7-meter-high walls are crowned with barbed wire. A closed-circuit television camera is also installed in the compound.
Watchtowers
Policemen armed with high-powered firearms were seen manning the three watchtowers of the facility.
Visitors would have to pass through three security gates before reaching the 600-square-meter jail compound.
Supt. Mario Malana, CSU chief, said a 1.5-meter-high metal barrier would be installed to separate the two buildings and to prevent the unauthorized entry of visitors to the detention rooms.
Cell phones banned
“Mobile phones and other gadgets are strictly prohibited inside. We will screen all the persons who will visit the detainees,” Malana said.
He said the PNP had also prepared 16 smaller detention cells, each measuring 9 square meters, for the other individuals indicted in the pork barrel scam.
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