Hot, rat-infested cell awaits Leila

MANILA, Philippines - A small cell with a tiny toilet and no air-conditioning unit awaits Sen. Leila de Lima once she is detained at the Philippine National Police (PNP) Custodial Center at Camp Crame in Quezon City.

Sources told The STAR that De Lima will not be given special treatment if she is brought to Camp Crame for detention in connection with the warrant of arrest issued by a Muntinlupa regional trial court (RTC) for drug-related charges.

Muntinlupa RTC Branch 204 issued a warrant of arrest against De Lima yesterday. 

Agents of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) were posted to effect De Lima’s arrest at the Senate building in Pasay City at press time yesterday.

De Lima will be detained in a facility a stone’s throw from the cells of former senators Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Revilla Jr., whom the incumbent senator had indicted before the ombudsman on plunder charges in connection with the pork barrel scam when she was justice secretary.

Another small room, adjacent to the detention cell, is being readied for use as De Lima’s office.  

“The PNP is preparing two rooms for her, a detention area and an office,” a source privy to the preparations at Camp Crame said yesterday.

“There is no VIP treatment. The comfort room is so tiny... there are no showers,” the source added.

Since the jail’s ceiling was dilapidated, the PNP personnel repaired it and repainted the detention area white.  

“The paint work is also being rushed, the issuance of the warrant came as a surprise,” the source said.

De Lima will be isolated in the detention facility, previously used as cells for some police generals who were allowed to post bail for graft charges pending before the Sandiganbayan.

Unlike the newly built cells of Estrada and Revilla when they were jailed a few years ago, De Lima will have to contend with the old facilities that have barely been renovated.