Did SC overstep mandate on Enrile bail?

CEBU CITY, Philippines  – The Supreme Court may have overstepped its mandate and issued what appeared to be judicial clemency in its recent ruling allowing Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile to post bail, President Aquino said yesterday.

“I’m not a lawyer. Usually if there’s an issue on clemency, I take care of it as president, and I can only intervene if there is already what is called final conviction,” Aquino told reporters in Filipino in a chance interview at the DPWH Region 7 office here.

The High Court voted 8-4 last week to allow the 91-year-old senator to post P1.5 million bail, mainly on humanitarian grounds. The magistrates who voted favorably for Enrile’s petition cited his frail health and his being no flight risk.

“It’s important to note that the Supreme Court decision says nothing about evidence and it is centered on the age and health of the senator,” Aquino said.

He said Justice Secretary Leila de Lima doesn’t have to be instructed about pointing out flaws in the SC ruling as she has “spoken rather eloquently on the topic and others to include the dissenting opinions expressed by the honorable justices of the Supreme Court.”

Some quarters believe the ruling may apply to other cases, including those of Sens. Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Revilla Jr. who are also facing plunder charges along with Enrile.

Aquino barely gave clemency to convicts 70 years old and above.

Early this year, or before Pope Francis’ visit in mid-January, Aquino failed to release convicts – which should have been a yearly practice for Chief Executives every Christmas – as a sign of goodwill.

Reliable sources said Aquino directed De Lima to submit a “second list” of inmates at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City to be granted clemency in time for Francis’ visit.

“Secretary De Lima submitted a second list that is (currently) being reviewed,” the source had revealed.

Long before the pontiff’s arrival, the Bureau of Pardons and Parole – an agency under the Department of Justice – had submitted to De Lima a list of elderly inmates 70 years old and above who had served their sentence.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, whose president is Bataan Bishop Socrates Villegas, urged Aquino to grant clemency to sick, old and abandoned prisoners in line with the theme of the papal visit – “Mercy and Compassion.”

For the past five years, Aquino has so far released only eight prisoners – in December 2012. This was from the original shortlist of 40 convicts recommended for clemency by the BPP under the DOJ.

A recipient of Aquino’s clemency in July 2011 turned out to be already dead when his release papers reached the BuCor.

The man, who died of cancer, had served eight years of his 40-year jail term.

Up and about

After being allowed bail mainly for health reasons, Enrile reported back to the Senate yesterday – all set to catch up on his duties.

Accompanied by his daughter Katrina, Enrile arrived at his office yesterday afternoon, about an hour before the start of the plenary sessions, and was greeted by his staff and friends.

Since it was his first day back after a year of detention, Enrile sat through the plenary session and only stood up to manifest his abstention in the vote taken on two bills taken up for approval on third reading.

Speaking with reporters at the session hall, Enrile said that there was nothing extraordinary about his return to the Senate.

“It is just like before. I have no feeling. I’m not excited. I’m just going to work. It is my duty to come here,” Enrile said when asked about how he felt being out of detention and back at the Senate.

Enrile said that he kept himself busy during his year in detention, studying “everything under the sun.”

“My knowledge is insufficient so I have to study,” he said.

He said he felt not much of his time was wasted during detention.

“It was time wasted probably for the nation but not to me. Because I am being compensated and I am not working,” Enrile said.

He declined to comment on criticism by dissenting Associate Justice Marvic Leonen that the SC decision was a form of special accommodation for him.

He said that he does not harbor any ill feelings against anyone because “everyone in the world is my friend.”

“I will perform my duty for as long as I have an ounce of energy,” he said.

He also declined to talk about his plans for 2016 or who among the possible presidential candidates he would support. Enrile said he has not talked to anybody about politics because “all I did was to study.”

The veteran senator’s term is ending next year and it has been reported that he is retiring from politics.

Along with Vice President Jejomar Binay and former President and now Manila City Mayor Joseph Estrada, Enrile was one of the founders of the opposition United Nationalist Alliance.

Jinggoy for his part said Enrile urged him and Revilla to “be strong and have faith” in their effort to secure their own release from the court.

Enrile gave the advice last Saturday when he visited the two at the PNP custodial center at Camp Crame.

Jinggoy said all three of them had lunch together and talked about many things.

“We had lunch together with Senator Bong and nagkwentuhan lang,” Jinggoy told reporters in an interview after his bail hearing at the Sandiganbayan.

He expressed hope that the Supreme Court’s decision granting bail to Enrile would work to their advantage.

“I haven’t read the decision yet. But I am praying and hoping that it will have some favorable effects on us,” Jinggoy said.

‘Gross distortion’

Meanwhile, Leonen is being accused of “gross distortions” in his dissenting opinion by his fellow magistrate who penned the Supreme Court decision.

In a letter to Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno yesterday, Associate Justice Lucas Bersamin asked that the Enrile case be tackled again by the high court in today’s session.

Specifically, Bersamin sought discussion on the “unprecedented invasion of the autonomy of the majority in arriving at its main opinion and rectification of the gross distortions contained in Justice Leonen’s dissent.”

Bersamin stressed that the claims of Leonen “not only put me in bad light but worse, also impugned the integrity of the seven members of the Court who joined my ponencia by claiming that they signed the ponencia without the version they were joining.” –With Edu Punay, Marvin Sy, Michael Punongbayan