Noy: JPE too old for jail

HIROSHIMA – President Aquino is open to proposals that Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile should be granted house or hospital arrest for humanitarian reasons.

Aquino believes that Enrile should be accorded more leniency than his two colleagues, Senators Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. and Jinggoy Estrada, who are now detained at the Camp Crame Custodial Center after the Sandiganbayan ordered their arrest for plunder.

“He’s already 90 years old, there has to be consideration,” the President told reporters on a Philippine Airlines chartered flight en route to Hiroshima from Tokyo yesterday afternoon.

“We have been together in the Senate,” Aquino added, recalling his three-year stint as a member of the chamber prior to his victory in the May 2010 presidential elections.

Senators earlier pushed for hospital arrest for Enrile due to his frail condition.

Aquino cited the 1987 Constitution, Bill of Rights, Section 19, sub-section 1, which states that “a fine shall not be imposed or cruel, degrading, inhuman punishment inflicted.”

“The guy is known to have a lot of ailments. That is an established fact,” he said.

Enrile suffers from poor hearing, high blood pressure and vertigo.

The anti-graft court’s Third Division has yet to determine if there is probable cause to order the arrest of Enrile for plunder in connection with the pork barrel scam.

As to criticisms that Revilla and Estrada should not be enjoying luxuries at Camp Crame, Aquino recalled that even his late father former senator Ninoy Aquino had an air-conditioning unit when he was jailed during the Marcos dictatorship.

“And to be fair, may air-conditioner na at some point in time doon sa Fort Bonifacio. Of course, iyung one hour a day ka pwedeng lumabas ng kuwarto. Solitary confinement, hindi wala kang kaagaw sa banyo,” he said, recalling certain concessions like an hour’s break from solitary confinement.

The President was the keynote speaker at the Consolidation for Peace for Mindanao, an event sponsored by the Japan International Cooperation Agency in Hiroshima.