Gigi Reyes has entire Sandigan basement and new cell to herself

Jessica Lucila “Gigi” Reyes, the former chief aide of Senator Juan Ponce Enrile, surrenders at the Sandiganbayan for plunder charges in connection with the pork barrel scam. RAFFY LERMA/INQUIRER

MANILA, Philippines—Lawyer Jessica Lucila “Gigi” Reyes will spend her first weekend as a jailbird in solitary confinement in the basement of the Sandiganbayan building in Quezon City.

Unless her visitors bring her food, which is allowed, she will have to subsist on P30 meals, a far cry from the catered food in the ostentatious parties she used to host for her relatives and friends.

Reyes, who turned herself in to the antigraft court Friday evening, narrowly avoided sharing prison time with inmates at the overcrowded Quezon City Jail.

The court initially issued an order committing Reyes to the Quezon City Jail but withdrew it quickly and instead asked the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology to inform it within three days about the condition of the jail’s women’s dormitory, according to clerk of court Dennis Pulma.

Reyes “has been visited by her family and friends. She has also seen her lawyers who are allowed to see her. It’s a given,” Pulma told the Inquirer in a telephone interview Saturday.

“While the court is awaiting the feedback of the BJMP about the adequacy of its facility and the means to secure the accused, she will be detained in the detention facility of the Sandiganbayan,” he said.

Reyes is the former chief of staff of one of her co-accused, Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile, who is temporarily detained at the Philippine National Police General Hospital at Camp Crame after the Sandiganbayan also issued a warrant for his arrest on Friday.

Enrile and Reyes were among 54 persons ordered arrested on plunder and graft charges in connection with the pork barrel  racket allegedly operated by businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, who was detained much earlier on a charge of serious illegal detention. She has been indicted on plunder and graft as well.

The Sandiganbayan had also earlier ordered the arrest of Senators Ramon “Bong” Revilla and Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada in connection with the same charges. They are now locked up at the PNP Custodial Center at Camp Crame in Quezon City.

Reyes, who is about 40 years his junior, has been romantically linked with Enrile since 1998, an allegation he has vehemently denied.

A senior police official said Reyes “cried incessantly” upon learning that the court had committed her to a regular jail filled with all types of suspected felons awaiting trial as well as hardened criminals.

The source, who agreed to talk on condition of anonymity, said she could have avoided the situation if she had honored an agreement she allegedly had with the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group last month.

“Attorney Reyes was supposed to surrender to the CIDG so she could be detained at the PNP Custodial Center. But she apparently listened to her lawyers,” the source told the Inquirer, and went directly to the Sandiganbayan.

Revilla went directly to the Sandiganbayan and still wound up at the Crame detention facility.

“She was crying incessantly when she was told that she would be taken to the city jail,” he added.

Pulma said Reyes was occupying a 23.5-square-meter cell in the basement of the Sandiganbayan building that was built in December 2013.

He said Enrile’s former aide was the first to be detained in the cell, which the antigraft court ordered constructed in response to the government’s “gender sensitivity and development” program.

“Part of the government’s gender sensitivity program is to have separate detention facilities for male and female prisoners. Attorney Reyes is the first to use our gender-responsive detention facility,” Pulma said.

He said the room has a single bed, a small kitchen sink and a toilet. A stand fan had to be brought in since the room’s ceiling fan was broken, he added.

He said the antigraft court would only provide food worth P30 per meal for Reyes, but her visitors could bring her food.

On Saturday, she was served rice and ginataang puso ng saging (banana buds cooked in coconut milk) for lunch. Reyes had coffee only for breakfast, Pulma said.

An adjacent room outside the tightly guarded cell has been designated as a receiving area where she could meet her visitors, the clerk of court added.

Pulma said Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje Tang, who also chairs the Third Division, went to Reyes’ detention quarters  along with Associate Justice Alex Quiroz, a member of the division, for an ocular inspection

He said Tang also asked the security personnel about any specific concerns regarding the detention facility.

Said Pulma: “It’s a brief routine check as part of her duties as the Presiding Justice (of the Sandiganbayan). It was not a visit in particular to accused Attorney Reyes. They never met, they never talked.”

He said a doctor who checked on Reyes said she was “medically OK.”

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