Sandiganbayan allows hospital detention for Enrile

Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile

MANILA – Sandiganbayan temporarily grants Senator Juan Ponce Enrile’s request to be held under hospital detention.

The 90-year-old lawmaker is on trial for plunder and graft charges following his alleged involvement in the P10-billion pork barrel scam.

Enrile was allowed on Friday to stay in a private room at a police hospital in Camp Crame, Quezon City as his petition for bail is still pending.

Citing the recommendations of several doctors from the Philippine General Hospital (PGH), the anti-graft’s Third Division granted the senator’s petition.

The team of doctors were chosen by the court and were tasked to determine Enrile’s physical condition.

The 16-page resolution penned by Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang, indicated the court’s ruling that the senator had various medical conditions to warrant his stay at the Philippine National Police General Hospital

Enrile had been held in the said hospital since his arrest on July 4.

Agreeing with Tang’s decision, Associate Justices Samuel Martires and Alex Quiroz issued a separate three-page concurring opinion.

“After considering the findings and recommendations of…medical specialists from the PGH… the court is of the considered view that accused Enrile should remain in hospital detention ending the proceedings in these cases,” the court said.

“(P)lacing accused Enrile in a regular jail facility would definitely endanger (his) life. To order his incarceration in a jail facility, which could lead to his possible death, would certainly not serve the purpose of keeping (him) in detention,” it added.