No favors for Bella

You can’t blame Bella Ruby Santos, principal suspect in the killing of 6-year-old Ellah Joy Pique, for trying to make life as bearable as possible inside the Naga City Jail. After being committed to a jail close to home, one would expect that she’d keep quiet and cool her heels, not wishing to stir up trouble.

Its not her style to be tamed.

In a recent show of chutzpah, she had her family bring over meals. According to a police source, the food was shared with inmates and jail guards on the condition that local media be kept out of jail while she languishes there until a court decides whether to grant her bail.

This stunt also calls to mind her previous gesture of having her lawyers buy fast-food meals for court employees in the sala of former executive judge Meinrado Paredes of the Regional Trial Court. He rejected the food and scolded her lawyers.

Some may dismiss the incident with a cursory wave of the hand, saying there’s nothing wrong if an inmate, especially one with Santos’ resources, is generous once in a while.

That’s what they said of Jason Ivler, the murder suspect who had drinking sessions and women brought inside his jail in Muntinlupa. Prison officials denied it happened, but video clips taken using Ivler’s cell phone showed otherwise.

After her arrested last Friday in SM Megamall in Mandaluyong by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation, Bella said her “party days” were over and she could no longer avoid facing the homicide and kidnapping charges against her.

Sharing humba and home-cooked vegetables with jail mates and guards could be her way of making friends and giving keep her peace of mind in the tiny cell.

But for someone in Bella’s unenviable position, generosity comes with a price.

In this case, the free food comes with the condition that prison officials would keep the local media out. What’s next, should every visitor have to undergo screening too?

If she’s so innocent, what does Bella have to hide?

With the resources at her disposal, including a wealthy British boyfriend, and the fact that she eluded police for almost three months, there’s every reason to keep a wary eye on this detainee.

The police jailers have assured there would be “no special treatment” for their celebrated inmate.

Pardon us for not taking that promise hook, line and sinker.