JPE gets hospital arrest

MANILA, Philippines - The Sandiganbayan granted hospital arrest to Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile yesterday.

Third Division clerk of court Dennis Pulma said the 90-year-old lawmaker’s medical condition was considered in granting his request for continued confinement at the Philippine National Police General Hospital (PNPGH) at Camp Crame.

“Premises considered, accused Juan Ponce Enrile’s motion for detention at the PNP General Hospital pending the resolution of his motion for bail is granted,” Pulma said, quoting the decision.

Enrile will remain in the hospital until the Sandiganbayan orders otherwise, Pulma said.

The Third Division ruled that Enrile must stay at the PNPGH until doctors determine that he is physically fit for detention at a facility of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) or until further orders.

Enrile may also seek medical treatment in other hospitals if necessary, the court added.

Pulma said Enrile can be brought to another hospital in cases of emergency or if the required procedure is not available at the PNPGH.

He will have to shoulder all the medical expenses to be incurred during his hospital stay and whenever he seeks treatment in other medical facilities, the Third Division said.

During hearings on Enrile’s motion, doctors from the PNPGH and the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) agreed that he be allowed to remain under hospital arrest.

Doctors were directed to assess his medical condition to help the court decide whether to grant his request.

Enrile said his ailments due to his age, including erratic blood pressure, require him to take at least 19 medicines daily.

Prosecutors tried to oppose his motion for hospital arrest, but the Sandiganbayan eventually ruled in his favor.

Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang chairs the Third Division with Associate Justices Samuel Martires and Alez Quiroz as members. 

‘Benhur was not kidnapped’

A defense witness testified before the Makati regional trial court yesterday that Benhur Luy was not a kidnap victim.

During cross-examination, Peter John Castillo – a driver of Janet Lim-Napoles’ brother, Reynald Lim – stood pat on his direct testimony that he saw Luy’s family and a group of men forcibly take him from the lobby of the Pacific Plaza in Bonifacio Global City on March 22, 2013.

He was about 15 meters away when Luy was loaded into a waiting vehicle, he added.

Castillo told Judge Elmo Alameda that he cannot forget seeing Luy plead to his family to let him go.

“I don’t want to go with you,” he quoted Luy as saying in Filipino. “It’s not true that Jojo (Reynald Lim)  had kidnapped me.” 

Castillo said the last time he saw Lim was last March 22 when Luy’s family took him from the  Pacific Plaza.

However, he remains the Lim family driver, he added.

Defense counsels told the court they will present two more witnesses in the next trial.

Judge Alameda set the trial’s resumption on Oct. 3.

Luy’s parents had filed a complaint with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) that Napoles and Lim illegally detained their son.

Napoles and Lim had denied the allegations.

Napoles defends Ong

Napoles denied yesterday allegations that she had dealt with dismissed Associate Justice Gregory Ong while undergoing trial for graft at the Sandiganbayan.

Speaking to reporters after her bail hearing yesterday, Napoles said the Kevlar helmet case against her was dismissed in 2010, and that Ong asked for her help to talk with Monsignor Josefino Ramirez of Quiapo Church regarding the Black Nazarene’s clothing in 2012.

She only met Ong when he   was referred to her, she added.

Ong allegedly asked for Napoles’ help in contacting Ramirez because he had a prostate problem and that he wanted to pray to the Black Nazarene.

Napoles’ legal counsel, Stephen David said Ramirez was parish priest of Quiapo at the time and   the personal confessor and adviser of his client.

Ong was desperate then because of his prostate illness, but that the connection has nothing to do with the case, he added.

David said he doesn’t know anything about the alleged checks that Ong had allegedly received from Napoles, but that he doubts that a government official would accept checks for an illegal transaction.

“I don’t know how that could happen because as far as I know, Justice Ong never accepts such things,” he said.

David said Ong is a very strict and grouchy justice.

“If you would ask me if Justice Ong had accepted a payoff, I can honestly say malabong-malabo yun (that’s farfetched)” he said. – With Perseus Echeminada