Arroyo hopeful, too, of getting out on bail

THE lawyer of former president and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Arroyo is also hopeful that she would be granted bail for her plunder case after the Supreme Court (SC) allowed Senator Juan Ponce Enrile’s temporary freedom.

In an interview on Monday, Atty. Laurence Arroyo (no relation) said the former president should also be given provisional liberty because she and Enrile share similar health conditions.

He said Arroyo’s petition for certiorari filed in April before the Supreme Court to reverse the Sandiganbayan’s denial of her bail is similar to that of Enrile’s plea before the high court.

“I think it will help the petition of former president Arroyo which is also pending before the Supreme Court because I think they are similarly situated,” Atty. Arroyo said.

Atty. Arroyo said his client had also raised Arroyo’s frail health at age 68 and her not being a flight risk in her petition before the Supreme Court.

“Based upon sa nabasa ko sa media that the Supreme Court allowed Senator Enrile’s bail on humanitarian grounds, number one because of his age and number two because of his frail health based upon the medical certification of government doctors, and number three that he is not a flight risk. So all those three issues were raised in our own petition,” Atty. Arroyo said.

“Number one, (Arroyo) is already 68 years old, number two that she is not a flight risk, number three that government doctors have likewise certified as to her frail health, and number four, she’s undergone three major spinal surgeries,” he added.

Arroyo, who is under hospital detention at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) because of her cervical spondylosis, is facing plunder case over the alleged misuse of at least P366 million in Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) intelligence funds for personal gain from 2008 to 2010.

Enrile posted bail last Friday after the SC in a vote of 8-4 granted Enrile’s motion to reverse the Sandiganbayan Third Division’s ruling which denied his bail plea.

The high court noted Enrile’s frail health and not being flight risk at 91 years old.

The decision came exactly a week after the SC sided with Enrile’s request for bill of particulars in his plunder case over his alleged involvement in the pork barrel scam.

The high court set the bail amount for plunder at P1 million. On top of the P30,000 bail for each of his 15 graft charges, Enrile paid a total amount of P1.45 million.

In the ponencia of Associate Justice Lucas Bersamin, the high court said Enrile’s political stature and frail health ruled out the possibility of him being a flight risk as he stands trial for plunder.

“With his solid reputation in both his public and his private lives, his long years of public service, and history’s judgment of him being at stake, he should be granted bail,” Bersamin’s ponencia said.

“The currently fragile state of Enrile’s health presents another compelling justification for his admission to bail, but which the Sandiganbayan did not recognize,” it added.

“In our view, his social and political standing and his having immediately surrendered … indicated that the risk of his flight or escape from this jurisdiction is highly unlikely.”

In his dissenting opinion, Associate Justice Marvic Leonen said the majority decision to allow Enrile smacks of “selective accommodation” on a person because of his title and stature.

“It is based on a ground—humanitarian— never before raised before the Sandiganbayan or in the pleadings filed before this court,” Leonen said.
 

He said the ruling also sets a dangerous precedent because ordinarily bail is not granted based on humanitarian grounds.

Leonen said the decision “will usher in an era of truly selective justice not based on clear legal provisions, but one that is unpredictable, partial and solely grounded on the presence or absence of human compassion.”

He said while Enrile is ordered released, elder detainees continue to languish in cramped jails. “For them, there are no special privileges. The application of the law to them is often brute, banal and canonical,” Leonen said.