Enrile doctrine? Bail route discussed at bid to free ex-NPA leader

Bail on humanitarian grounds was discussed Thursday during Supreme Court oral arguments on a petition for the immediate release of former New People's Army (NPA) leader Rodolfo Salas.

Salas' son has sought his release through a petition for the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, arguing that he could no longer be prosecuted for murder—the cause of his recent arrest—because the offense is absorbed in his rebellion conviction decades ago.

During oral arguments, Associate Justice Alexander Gesmundo asked Salas' lawyer if they would consider availing of the doctrine in the 2015 SC ruling that granted former senator Juan Ponce Enrile bail on humanitarian grounds.

The SC voted to grant bail to Enrile, a plunder defendant, on account of his "advanced age" and for "health reasons." He was 91 at the time.

The Sandiganbayan cited the Enrile doctrine when it allowed former first lady Imelda Marcos post-conviction bail in 2018.

Salas is 72 years old and is detained at the Manila City Jail, sharing a 3-foot  x 1.5-foot bed with three or four other inmates, said his lawyer, Arno Sanidad of the Free Legal Assistance Group.

While Sanidad told Gesmundo they would like to move for bail, he said the "closest basis for his bail would be the very case of Ocampo," referring to former Bayan Muna congressman Satur Ocampo.

Salas, Ocampo, and several others face 15 counts of murder before a Manila court in connection with the 2006 discovery of a mass grave in Inopacan, Leyte, that supposedly contained the bones of victims of the communist "purge" in the 1980s.

The SC granted Ocampo bail in 2014 and ruled that he shall "remain on temporary liberty under the same bail granted by this Court until the termination of the proceedings before the RTC Manila." Salas was arrested last month.

Sanidad enumerated the ways Salas could be immediately released: the grant of the habeas corpus petition, the grant of bail, and the prosecution withdrawing the murder charges against his client.

When Gesmundo raised pursuing the three strategies before the Manila Regional Trial Court as they involve factual issues, Sanidad mentioned "the time it would take for the lower court to resolve the issue."

Asked about the possibility of bail for Salas, Solicitor General Jose Calida initially said: "I will cross the bridge when I see it."

Later, he told Associate Justice Rosmari Carandang that it is up to the court to decide.

"But if we will read our sentiments, how about those 15 persons who were massacred, how about their relatives? They have waited for so many years for justice, Your Honor. There should be a balancing here of sentiments, if I may say, Your Honor," he said.

Calida, who represents the judge who issued the arrest warrant against Salas, is of the position that the habeas corpus petition should be dismissed because Salas' detention is legal.

Salas was until recently a free man, having served his sentence for a rebellion conviction in 1991.

His lawyers claimed that the pending murder case—whose basis was discovered years after the conviction—should be barred because the prior conviction was based on a plea bargain agreement shielding him from future prosecution for crimes committed in furtherance of rebellion.

On the other hand, Calida argued that the acts in the old rebellion charge did not include the present 15 counts of murder and could not be "automatically considered" as to have been absorbed.

Sanidad countered that the murders were allegedly committed in 1985 and thus fall under the rebellion conviction, which he said covers acts committed from 1970 to 1986.

After almost three hours, oral arguments wrapped up with Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, chair of the Third Division, ordering the parties to file their respective memoranda within five days, upon which the case will be submitted for resolution. — BM, GMA News