SC admits delay in release of sick, elderly detainees

The Supreme Court failed to promptly resolve the petition seeking the immediate release from prison facilities of the sick and elderly prisoners to decongest jails and prevent the spread of coronavirus disease because the justice-in-charge of the case remains stranded in Visayas due to the travel ban imposed by the government during the public health emergency.

During his first online “CJ Meets the Press” on Thursday, Peralta said that the member-in-charge of the petition has been stranded at his place in Visayas due to the travel restrictions being implemented by the government as part of the measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under the SC internal rules, the member-in-charge is given the responsibility of overseeing the progress and disposition of a case raffled to him or her. The identity of the justice-in-charge is supposed to be confidential pending its resolution.

“Unfortunately the member in charge cannot come now to Manila, there is no flight yet from his place in Visayas coming to Manila,” Peralta told reporters.

“But that is already submitted for deliberations and you know, what we do in the Supreme Court is that we cannot tackle something if it’s not deliberated upon and the one who will present to the en banc is the member-in-charge. So, I hope that he can come this Tuesday and I can assure you that once he’s here, I believe that case will finally be now resolved,” the chief magistrate added.

According to Peralta, it would be difficult to hold the deliberations on the petition through videoconferencing because all questions are directed to the member-in-charge.

“If we have to vote only and the deliberations have already been terminated, that might work. But, you cannot vote on something when there is no deliberation, and the one who will lead the deliberation is the ponente, that is the problem,” the top magistrate pointed out.

However, Peralta expressed optimism that the assigned ponente of the case would be able to travel back to Manila in time for next Tuesday’s en banc session since domestic flights have already resumed.

“I believe we can finish it this Tuesday,” Peralta said.

The petition was filed by 22 sick and mostly senior citizens PDLS through the Public Interest Law Center and the National Union of People’s Lawyers.

The two lawyers’ groups told the SC the petition also covers prisoners who are similarly situated “but cannot be included in this petition due to the difficult circumstances.”

The petitions are also asking the SC to compel the government to create a Prisoner Release Committee, “similar to those set up in other countries, to urgently study and implement the release of all other prisoners in various congested prisons throughout the country…”

Among those named respondents in the petition were Local Governments Secretary Eduardo Ano, Justice Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra, Director Allan Sullano Iral of BJMP, and Director Gerald Q. Bantag of the Bureau of Corrections.

The petition told the SC that “COVID-19 pandemic has put the world at a standstill, and while the medical and scientific communities are in a rush to find the necessary cure, governments all over the world have been implementing measures to contain the spread of the disease such as lockdowns and social-distancing measures.”

It said there are 10.7 million persons incarcerated all over the world with the Philippines “having a recorded total prison population of 215,000 housed in just 933 detention establishments.”

The sad state of the prison facilities “prompted the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet to call for the immediate release of vulnerable prisoners all over the world,” the petition said.

Many countries have responded like the United States, Canada, Germany, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, England, Ireland and Wales, Iran, Sri Lanka12 and Egypt began releasing hundreds to tens of thousands of prisoners because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it said.

However, the petitioners lamented that the “Philippines has yet to respond to this call.”

Currently, there are a total of 745 PDLs who have been infected with coronavirus and 125 personnel of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology.

Six prisoners have already died due to health complications while 388 have recovered.

The petitioners argued that that based on the pronouncements of the World Health Organization and the Philippines’ Department of Health, “the most vulnerable (to COVID-19 infection) are those who are 60 years of age and above, those who are sick and with co-morbidities such as hypertension, asthma and other respiratory illness, and cardiovascular problems, diabetes, and those who are pregnant.”

Pending the resolution of the petition, the SC has adopted the use of videconferencing to facilitate the immediate release of PDLs during the lockdown period.

 Peralta reported that a total of 22,522 PDLs have been already released since the lockdown in March, either through bail or recognizance, or after serving the minimum imposable penalty for the crime they were charged.