Businessman linked to fertilizer scam to stay in jail for 3 days

MANILA, Philippines - Businessman Jaime Paule will be freed from the Pasay City Jail on Monday even if he does not apologize to the Senate.

Sen. Richard Gordon, Senate Blue Ribbon committee chairman, said Paule can leave the city jail three days after he was detained on Thursday.

“It is up to him what he wants to do after three days,” he said. “He will be freed. He can apologize if he wants, but he showed no remorse.”

Gordon said Paule was detained at the Pasay City Jail because he lied to the Senate in his testimony on the P728-million fertilizer fund scam.

“He has done nothing but lie to us,” he said.

“Witnesses already linked him to the mess, but he denied them all. Even a photo presented as evidence, he dismissed as tampered. Those are instances of contemptuous conduct.”

The Senate has the power under its rules to commit any person cited in contempt to any jail in the country, Gordon said.

However, Ferdinand Topacio, Paule’s lawyer, said he will charge the custodians of his client with arbitrary detention.

He might again file the case if Paule is not released from the Pasay City Jail.

Topacio said Paule should be freed from jail today because he is considered to have been in detention since the Senate served the arrest warrant on Paule at the St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City last Wednesday.

Paule’s three-day detention should have been counted starting Wednesday up to yesterday, he added.

Topacio said he will file before the Supreme Court an “Urgent Motion for Immediate Release” on behalf of Paule.

“However, if they will not immediately act on the petition, Mr. Paule will be extending his stay in jail, and that would mean continuous violation of his human and political rights,” he said.

Paule suffered a bout of asthma for about 10 minutes at the Pasay City Jail yesterday, according to Topacio.

Paule cannot endure the “bad ventilation” at the city jail, he added. – Jose Rodel Clapano, Rhodina Villanueva