MANILA, Philippines—Two hospital wards at the Philippine National Police (PNP) General Hospital can be used as detention room if the Sandiganbayan orders a hospital arrest for Senator Juan Ponce Enrile.
Chief Superintendent Reuben Theodore Sindac, PNP Public Information Office Chief, said Wednesday that the PNP has back-up plans in case the court places Enrile under hospital arrest.
In his speech in Tokyo on Tuesday, President Benigno Aquino III said the jailers of Enrile should be considerate in arresting him.
According to the PNP Health Service chief, it may either be the 9-square-meter Public Order Violator (POV) room or the air-conditioned “Special Ward.”
Chief Superintendent Alejandro Advincula, PNP Health Service chief, said that Enrile could be placed in either of the two rooms.
Inside the POV room are a single bed, toilet and an open window secured with iron grills.
The Special Ward, meanwhile, is bigger by three square meters and has an air-condition unit. It also has a toilet with shower and sliding glass window.
Enrile is one of those charged with plunder and graft in connection with the P10 billion pork barrel scam. His fellow senators Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. and Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada had been detained at the PNP Custodial Center.
Revilla and Estrada are detained in a 32-square-meter room each, which are bigger than the projected detention room of Enrile but both have poor ventilation.
“We are still unsure if the court would consider the PNP hospital but we are ready for any eventuality that may warrant his confinement to the hospital,” Sindac said.
But for Enrile’s regular booking procedures, the PNP PIO chief said he would have to go to Camp Crame for physical and medical examination, fingerprinting and the taking of his mugshot.
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