ADVERTISEMENT
Case for release of sick, elderly detainees likely to be resolved next week -Chief Justice Peralta
By NICOLE-ANNE C. LAGRIMAS, GMA News Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta on Thursday said he believes the Supreme Court (SC) can resolve by next week the petition for the release of sick and elderly detainees amid the COVID-19 crisis.
Filed in April, a petition by several detainees seeking their provisional release on humanitarian grounds is still pending before the SC.
As of Thursday, 745 detainees and 125 staff members of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology have tested positive for COVID-19. Six detainees have died due to the infectious disease.
Asked about the case at his first online press briefing, Peralta said the justice-in-charge, who will lead the deliberation, has been unable to come to Manila due to the absence of flights from his place in the Visayas.
"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," Peralta said.
The chief justice said the court may resort to videoconferencing, as it had done during the enhanced community quarantine, if the justice-in-charge would still fail to make it to the physical en banc session next week.
ADVERTISEMENT
The petition for the release of elderly detainees and those with underlying medical conditions was part of calls for the government to ease jail population amid fears that COVID-19 outbreaks in congested detention facilities would turn out deadly.
Most of the petitioners are elderly detainees who have diabetes, hypertension, among other ailments. One has leprosy, and one is pregnant.
The petitioners said their continued detention despite their medical condition is "tantamount to cruel and unusual punishment, which the 1987 Constitution explicitly prohibits."
Kapatid, a group of political prisoners' families, welcomed Peralta's statement.
Kapatid said one of the petitioners, the pregnant woman, is in her 8th month of pregnancy and is due to give birth in July. The group said she faces trumped-up charges.
"Together with her mother and family, we are very worried about her condition and we hope the SC will allow her release, even on temporary basis on bail," Kapatid said in a statement.
While the petition remains pending, Peralta issued a series of administrative circulars that allowed the online filing of cases and application for bail, reduced bail for indigent detainees, and authorized more than a thousand courts across the country to hold hearings through videoconferencing.
Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez earlier said more than 22,000 detainees were released during the COVID-19 lockdown.
The Department of Justice, on the other hand, has allowed simplified rules in applications for parole and executive clemency for convicted prisoners. —AOL/BM, GMA News