Sandiganbayan grants Gigi Reyes furlough for dental surgery

MANILA - The Sandiganbayan allowed accused Jessica Lucila "Gigi" Reyes to temporarily leave Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City after the court approved her request to undergo dental surgery.

“The court grants the urgent motion to allow accused Jessica Lucila G. Reyes to undergo dental surgery dated October 19,” the Sandiganbayan’s Third Division resolution read.

In its six-page resolution dated November 4 released to the media on Thursday, Sandiganbayan said it allowed Reyes to undergo dental surgery taking into consideration the testimony of Senior Inspector Analiza Cabras, a resident dentist at the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) Female Dormitory in Taguig City where Reyes is detained.

Reyes, former chief of staff of Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, asked the court for a furlough to determine the gravity and extent of her alleged tooth infection as well as its effect as recommended by dentist Gary Brillo.

She is currently detained at the Camp Bagong Diwa after being charged with plunder and graft complaints in connection with the ‘pork barrel’ scam.

The anti-graft court said it found the need for the upper molar or Reyes to be extracted and so it permitted Reyes to be brought to Brillo’s Clinic located at the ground floor of The Infinity condominium tower in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig.  It stated that she must be brought back to Camp Bagong Diwa on the same day immediately after her dental procedure.

It added that Reyes’s dentists Brillo and Cabras must submit to the court their respective medical reports within five days after the dental procedure.

The resolution, however, did not mention the date when Reyes will leave Camp Bagong Diwa and undergo dental surgery.

Reports clarified that the Sandiganbayan allowed Reyes’s camp to choose the date when she will have her dental procedures, depending on the availability of her dentist.

Meanwhile, the BJMP was ordered to manage security measures during Reyes’s transit to and from Brillo’s dental clinic.