Supreme Court Associate Justice Marvic Leonen has urged his colleagues at the Supreme Court to consider implementing what he described as the “Writ of Kalayaan” to address the problem of jail congestion, violations of the rights of people deprived of liberty, and as a measure to prevent the spread of the coronavirus among PDLs.
In his separate opinion on the high court’s decision on the petition filed by the 22 political prisoners that they be allowed to post bail or be released on recognizance, Leonen proposed that the high court provide a remedy called the Writ of Kalayaan, which is grounded on social justice for inmates.
Leonen made the suggestion after the 15-member bench ruled to treat the petition of the 22 political prisoners “as their application for bail or recognizance as well as their motion for other confinement arrangements.”
As it declared the petition as closed and terminated, the high court also referred their case to the respective trial courts where their criminal cases are pending “to conduct necessary proceedings and onsequently resolve these incidents with utmost dispatch.”
The SC ruling was promulgated last July 28, 2020, but a copy of the decision was only released on Monday.
Leonen proposed that the Court En Banc should create a subcommittee under the Committee on Rules to immediately draft a proposal for the issuance of a Writ of Kalayaan to set clear guidelines for the lower courts in adjudicating proven violations of the right against cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment as a result of continuous congestion of detention centers or jails.
According to him, the Writ of Kalayaan would be similar to the Writ of Kalikasan, only that the Writ of Kalayaan would be a continuing mandamus for agencies concerned to protect the PDLs from being infected with the virus by decongesting the jails.
“This time, a writ of kalayaan should be issued when all the requirements to establish cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment are present. This is necessary considering that the continued and malicious congestion of our jails does not affect only one individual.
Its issuance is grounded on this Court’s rule-making authority and the extreme situation brought upon by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Leonen said.
“This Court is again being called to address a systemic problem that even the most basic health protocols to prevent the spread of the virus cannot address. Jail congestion is as virulent as COVID-19 itself, especially in the face of an unprecedented global pandemic.“
Once a Writ of Kalayaan is issued, he said, an executive judge would have to be more focused in supervising the traditional or extraordinary release of convicts or detainees.
According to him, the writ would have to provide an order of precedence in order to bring the occupation of jails to a more humane level. Those whose penalties are the lowest and whose crimes are brought about, not by extreme malice but by the indignities of Poverty. may be prioritized, he said.