EDITORIAL - Escaping logic

According to Senator Robin Padilla, who has been accused of obstruction of justice, he didn’t help fugitive Senator Ronald Dela Rosa escape last May 14 after suddenly showing up at the Senate despite an outstanding warrant. And this is because Senator Dela Rosa only asked him for a ride outside of the Senate compound.

“Walang takas na nagaganap. Napanood ‘nyo naman ‘yung CCTV. Mayroon bang ganoon na tumakas? Siya po ay sumakay lang sa aking sasakyan at nakisakay. Kami po ay naglakad lang. Ang imagination ko ng takas ay tumakbo, nasa dilim. ‘Yun ang takas,” Senator Padilla asserted.

We are afraid logic might be escaping Senator Padilla, and if he only qualifies escaping as running in the dark, he can certainly use more imagination.

No one has to be running in the dark or showing obvious panicked or distressed behavior to be considered escaping.

In fact, some of the greatest escapes in history were done clandestinely, with guile and even style.

In 1962, Frank Morris, John Anglin, and Clarence Anglin escaped from Alcatraz by building a boat then sailing out to the San Francisco Bay. They have never been found.

In 2015, Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman escaped his jail using an air-conditioned tunnel, built with precise GPS coordinates, from his cell to a building outside the jail.

In 1992, another Colombian drug lord, Pablo Escobar, escaped from his house arrest by mere walking out of the villa purposely built to “imprison” him.

So, no, escapes don’t have to be people running in the dark.

Giving someone a ride is certainly not against the law. But when Senator Padilla gave Senator Dela Rosa that ride, dropping him wherever he asked to be let off, it resulted in a wanted fugitive escaping from the law, and that itself is a crime.

And Senator Padilla cannot reason that he didn’t know Senator Dela Rosa was wanted at the time; the tense events that followed his arrival on the Senate premises the day before he was helped to escape became national news.