VIP inmates

It’s amazing how people who claim to be too sick to be detained without bail in a regular jail, necessitating “hospital arrest,” suddenly bounce back to health and eagerly return to work once they are set free.

This we are seeing in the case of Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, who will soon resume his work as Senate minority leader. For the blowback, expect him to add to the administration’s woes in the congressional deliberations on the Bangsamoro law.

As we are seeing, daang matuwid’s bigger worry is that the principle behind the unprecedented Supreme Court (SC) ruling favoring bail for Enrile will also be applied in the case of an even bigger fish – the nation’s top VIP jailbird, Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. 

President Aquino, in his final year in office, has not stopped blaming his predecessor for all of the nation’s problems and his administration’s failures. It’s bordering on the obsessive-compulsive, but more than simply engaging in a blame game, P-Noy reportedly wants to see GMA convicted of plunder before he bows out of office.

This could be set back by her release on bail. Even if the reason is mainly humanitarian, as in Enrile’s case, many will still perceive it to be due to weak evidence. After all, GMA’s co-accused in the case that earned her “hospital arrest” for plunder have all been allowed to post bail.

*      *      *

One difference between GMA and Enrile is that the nonagenarian senator can validly claim that he’s no flight risk and that he’s truly raring to return to the Senate session hall.

GMA, on the other hand, has that memorable incident in which the SC under Renato Corona nearly managed to allow her to leave the country in November 2011. After depositing a cash bond of P2 million at the SC docket shortly after the ruling was issued and before the close of office hours, GMA was at the NAIA with her husband, with plane tickets for Hong Kong. Their departure was barred by the Bureau of Immigration, which is under the Department of Justice.

That incident was reportedly the last straw for P-Noy, who began working with his allies for Corona’s impeachment as chief justice. At the time, P-Noy still had tremendous persuasive power over Congress, with his high ratings combined with the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) and the pork barrel.

Six months later, Corona was ousted after being found guilty by the Senate impeachment court of lying about his assets.

The SC, however, remains packed with GMA appointees, and P-Noy has never been on good terms with the high tribunal. His own appointees have voted against him in several controversial issues, notably the DAP. His original Bangsamoro law, as crafted by his peace negotiating team, may never pass SC muster.

The administration reportedly fears that once freed on bail, GMA may also invoke humanitarian grounds to be able to go abroad for treatment of her debilitating illnesses – and never return.

There’s a United Nations Convention Against Corruption that binds signatory states to extradite persons wanted for graft-related offenses. During GMA’s presidency, the Philippines signed the UNCAC on Dec. 9, 2003 and ratified it on Nov. 8, 2006. Of the 176 parties to the convention, however, only 140 have ratified or accepted it so far, so there’s still sanctuary in the world for fugitives.

GMA’s camp insists she’s no flight risk and, if freed, she intends to just focus on her work as a lawmaker. They’ve been working for her house arrest even before Enrile was granted bail.

What’s common between the cases of Enrile and GMA is the criticism about two types of justice in this country: one for VIPs and the other for the hoi polloi.

Critics and the dissenters in the SC ruling on Enrile’s bail argue that there is no legal basis for it and he simply enjoyed political accommodation. But the law, as many quarters have often ruefully pointed out, is what the SC majority says it is.

From non-lawyers’ point of view, the SC ruling is just the latest in a long string of decisions, from the lower courts to the court of last resort, favoring moneyed or influential parties.

Arrest and incarceration (with the heat, dirt and vermin in an ordinary detention cell) are guaranteed to raise blood pressure from anxiety. But how many inmates get the privilege of “hospital arrest”?

If a suspected pickpocket who stole P100 complained of dizziness, nausea and chest pains after being tossed into a crowded, grimy cell, the jail custodian would probably slug him and tell him to stop aiming for an acting award.

Among recidivists and those arrested for graver offenses, there’s actually a third type of justice, reserved for the Pinoy hampaslupa: they just disappear from the face of the Earth, usually after “trying to escape.”

*      *      *

The biggest injustice is the glacial pace of litigation. In this at least the courts are relatively equal-opportunity tormentors. Joseph Estrada was held for six years, although much of it under “resthouse arrest” while waiting for the final resolution of his plunder case.

But six years is still top speed compared to the 10 to 20 years that other cases take to hurdle the judicial process.

Also, Erap is hardly a poster boy for blind justice. A pickpocket can languish in prison for years for stealing P545. A former president who is convicted of receiving P545 million in jueteng payola plus P189.7 million from an insider trading scheme gets full pardon and does not get to spend a single second behind bars. Erap has never apologized and continues to maintain his innocence. And the SC was either too lazy, gutless or both to rule on a petition disqualifying him from running again for president in 2010.

Anyone convicted of an offense related to betrayal of public trust must be permanently barred from holding public office, with no presidential clemency allowed to overturn the prohibition. But all the crooks in Congress will probably refuse to put this into law.

There oughta be a law against VIP justice… but unfortunately, it’s the SC that will interpret that law.