VIP prisoners: Every which way but jail

Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

As they await their fate, Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Revilla Jr. have kept netizens abuzz on whether they would opt for detention in a hospital suite or in a house in a military camp.

Given the trend to grant hospital or house arrest to high-profile detainees, Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III is opening an inquiry to decide once and for all whether to make this a policy or scrap it altogether.

Hospital and house arrests are “informal arrangements” because the law provides regular jail for everyone, but they are “alternative mechanisms” that should be looked into, he said.

Such forms of detention have become “rampant” in recent years, but the question of their legality is another matter, said Pimentel, a lawyer.

What’s the legal basis

“What’s the legal basis for this practice? Do we want this practice to continue? If the answer is yes, then let’s make sure it’s legal. If the answer is no, then let’s make it clearly unlawful. Either way, we might need a law,” he said in an interview.

If it’s unlawful, the committee on justice and human rights will issue a pronouncement that it’s unlawful and “must be stopped,” the senator said.

“If we want this to persist, let’s have a law authorizing this,” he added.

Apart from detention in a hospital or in a camp, some people are also held in the national police headquarters in Camp Crame, or in the National Bureau of Investigation, he observed.

Safety pretext

The senators’ corespondent in the pork barrel scam, businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, has been held in a police training camp in Laguna province purportedly for her own safety since her arrest last year in a separate illegal detention case.

This has raised hackles because she clammed up at the Senate inquiry into the scam, and set off calls for her to be thrown in a regular jail.

Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is detained in the state-run Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City while on trial for plunder and electoral sabotage charges.

Estrada’s own father, deposed President Joseph Estrada, was placed under house arrest in his rest house in the mountains of Tanay, Rizal province, while being tried for plunder.

Should the Ombudsman decide to file plunder and graft charges against them with the Sandiganbayan, Senator Estrada ruled out requesting a special detention facility, and said he was prepared for a regular jail.

“Do I have a choice? We don’t have a choice,” Estrada told reporters by phone from Los Angeles on Friday on the prospect of landing in a regular jail. “I’m not thinking of it.”

Premature talk

Lawyer Joel Bodegon said he and his client, Revilla, haven’t discussed this, adding that any talk of detention was premature. Enrile has not issued a statement.

After announcing their being found liable for plunder and graft in connection with the scam, the Ombudsman gave the senators, Napoles and several others an opportunity to file a motion for reconsideration.

Once the Ombudsman files the case in the Sandiganbayan, the discretion of where they will be detained lies with the antigraft court, presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said on Friday.

Pimentel, chair of the committee on justice and human rights, said he would call the hearing after Congress resumes sessions on May 5.

He said the committee would invite officials from the Department of Justice, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, Bureau of Corrections, National Bureau of Investigation, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, judges and criminal law professors to get their views on the matter.

The goal is to firm up a legislative position with a view to crafting a law on the matter, he said. There are now relevant bills pending with the committee that warrant a hearing on the issue.

Common man’s pulse

“I will pursue the subject matter, and feel the pulse of the common man as well as the experts in criminal law,” he said.

Pimentel agreed that the issue of whether senior citizens could invoke old age to ask for a special treatment would likely be raised in the hearing. Enrile is 90 years old.

He said the law did not mandate special treatment. When one reaches 70, one is eligible for parole, but this has limitations.

“Parole has to do with generosity of the State. But for a grave crime, the State will not be generous,” he said.

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