Lacson on Marcoleta: It’s a miracle!

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Panfilo Lacson couldn’t believe his eyes as he watched Sen. Rodante Marcoleta walk out of the Sandiganbayan on Wednesday.

"It’s a MIRACLE! Naka wheelchair pumasok, brisk walk lumabas,” Lacson posted on X yesterday, referring to Marcoleta, who was ordered detained by the Sandiganbayan for plunder over allegedly undeclared P75 million in campaign donations.

Lacson was astounded to see Marcoleta walk out on his own, waving to members of the media, when he had arrived in a wheelchair, wearing a face mask and bulletproof vest, escorted by Philippine National Police (PNP) personnel.

From the Sandiganbayan, Marcoleta boarded a coaster that took him to the New Quezon City Jail in Payatas, where he will be detained along with his co-accused – former congressman Michael Defensor and businessmen Joseph Espiritu and Aristotle Viray.

Lacson commended the UP-PGH for providing the Sandiganbayan an objective medical assessment of Marcoleta in order for him to be committed to the New Quezon City Jail instead of granting him continued stay at the PNP-General Hospital.

“Kudos to UP-PGH for putting professionalism and integrity above all other considerations in submitting their medical report to the Sandiganbayan,” Lacson said.

Lacson had noted a pattern of hospital arrests being granted to plunder suspects at state-funded hospitals.

Marcoleta was confined for over a week at the PNP-PGH, where another suspect in the flood control scandal, former public works secretary Manuel Bonoan, 80, was allowed hospital detention pending his bid to turn state witness.

Lacson said plunder suspects’ being detained at the police hospital may have deprived more deserving PNP personnel of a stay there.

Based on the UP-PGH findings and the “unanimous” decision of its team of doctors, the Sandiganbayan ruled Marcoleta “no longer requires hospital confinement” and that “there is no risk posed to (his) health.”

No choice

Marcoleta cannot share a detention cell with Sen. Jinggoy Estrada and former senator Ramon Revilla Jr. at the New Quezon City Jail.

Stressing a strict first-come, first-serve policy, Bureau of Jail Management and Penology spokesman Superintendent Jayrex Joseph Bustinera said yesterday Marcoleta cannot choose his cellmates at the detention facility along Payatas Road.

Estrada is being charged with plunder linked to an alleged flood control scandal while Revilla is facing malversation and graft charges regarding an alleged ghost flood control project in Bulacan. Both are non-bailable offenses.

Associate Justices Karl Miranda, Ronald Moreno and Fritz Bryn Anthony delos Santos, who comprise the anti-graft court’s Third Division, inspected the facilities at the Quezon City jail hours after it ordered Marcoleta’s transfer on Wednesday.

Marcoleta would stay at the ward, which has a split-type air-conditioner, table with monobloc chairs, bed, divider, comfort room and windows with steel rails and covered with blinds.

After his one-week isolation, Marcoleta will be brought to the area where the general population of detainees, including Estrada and Revilla are detained. — Emmanuel Tupas, Ghio Ong