Revilla gives up bid to get better jail cell

INQUIRER.net and PDI FILE PHOTOS

MANILA, Philippines — The camp of Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr. will not be asking for a better detention cell than the rat, roach-infested room that he’s been thrown in, after all.

Revilla’s counsel, Joel Bodegon, said they would no longer move for a better confinement lest this would only complicate their legal moves.

“The more you try to engage in that kind of initiative, it becomes an issue. We don’t want to be distracted from the legal issues at hand. For now, that’s our focus,’’ he said by phone last Saturday.

Otherwise, he said Revilla has been “doing his best to cope with the adverse circumstances he’s in.’’

“So far, he has not complained of migraine,’’ he said. “After his arraignment, he seemed OK.’’

After his first night of detention on June 20, Revilla complained of rats and roaches, while his lawyer bewailed the unbearable heat inside.  At the time, Bodegon said they would move for a better confinement.

Revilla and fellow accused Sen. Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada are now locked up in a four-room bungalow built for them and Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile by the Philippine National Police in Camp Crame.

According to reports, visitors of Revilla and Estrada have been staying beyond the allowable time, in violation of prison rules.

The three were indicted on plunder and graft charges in the Sandiganbayan for allegedly pocketing kickbacks from their pork barrel entitlements that apparently were funneled to dummy non-government organizations.

Meanwhile, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV has filed Senate Bill No. 793 seeking to integrate the current penal system into a coordinated, highly efficient and competent office to be called Bureau of Correctional Services.

The bureau would be in charge of running secure, adequately equipped and sanitary jails for the custody and safekeeping of prisoners, he said.

Under the bill, the prisoners would be classified and transferred based on their age, recidivism, gravity of offense, penalty or sentence, and other factors, the senator said.

The goal, he said, would be to decongest the jails and promote the general welfare of the prisoners.

“We are promoting a just and humane society and to treat detainees like dogs is not the way to go. We have to improve our detention facilities and construct new ones to make sure that these detainees will not lose their dignity while in jail,’’ he said.

Trillanes earlier said that the treatment of the detained senators complied with the global standard of detention. He proposed that the government “level up’’ the treatment of other detainees.

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