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THE
Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Thursday that
the Regional Trial Court (RTC) in
Zamboanga
City
has dismissed the petition for the issuance of a writ of
habeas corpus filed by former congressman Romeo Jalosjos
of Zamboanga del Norte for lack of merit.
Justice
Secretary Raul Gonzalez said he has ordered the
immediate return of Jalosjos from the San Ramon Prison
and Farm in Zamboanga City to the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP)
in Muntinlupa City owing to the dismissal of the
petition.
“As far
as we are concerned, we are pleased with the decision
because it sustained the arguments we have raised…I have
already issued an order to return him to the NBP because
it is there where he originated,” Gonzalez said in a
hastily called news conference.
Gonzalez
said Judge Jesus Carbon of Branch 16 of the RTC in
Zamboanga City, who is handling Jalosjos’s petition for
habeas corpus, based his decision on the resolution
issued by the DOJ on January 1, which states that based
on its computation of the former legislator’s good
conduct time allowance (GCTA), he will be eligible for
release by 2010.
Gonzalez
said he expects Jalosjos to file a motion for
reconsideration before the lower court, but this would
not prevent his transfer to the NBP.
Earlier,
the Solicitor General argued that Jalosjos cannot avail
of the writ of habeas corpus to secure his freedom since
his detention is legal owing to his final conviction for
statutory rape in 1997.
Solicitor General Agnes Devanadera noted that Jalosjos’s
detention is pursuant to a final judgment of the Supreme
Court convicting him of two counts of statutory rape and
six counts of acts of lasciviousness.
Jalosjos
left the NBP compound on December 22 by virtue of a
certificate of discharge signed by Superintendent
Juanito Leopando. His escape also led to the removal of
Bureau of Corrections chief Ricardo Dapat from his post.
But the
Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) said that the
release order is not binding since Leopando failed to
affirm its authenticity before the court, and that the
latter has no authority to allow Jalosjos’s release
since Dapat has already issued a memorandum stopping his
release.
“Petitioner evaded service of sentence. This is because
his release date is still scheduled on
June 24, 2010. Petitioner became a fugitive from justice when he fled from
prison to avoid serving his full punishment. His
warrantless arrest by police authorities on
December
23, 2007, was, therefore, legal,” the OSG stressed.
In
Zamboanga City Jalosjos’s lawyers have junked their plan
to ask the court to allow their client to be
hospitalized.
Alfredo
Jimenez, one of Jalosjos’s lawyers, said they will no
longer make the request, saying that the health of the
former congressman has improved the past few days.
Jalosjos
has been detained at the San Ramon penal colony, west of
this city, after policemen rearrested him on December 23
in Dapitan City, Zamboanga del Norte.
Earlier,
Jimenez disclosed that three physicians who visited
Jalosjos diagnosed the convicted child-rapist to be
suffering from slight pneumonia.
He said
that the results of the medical checkup also showed that
Jalosjos was experiencing fluctuating or unstable blood
pressure.
He said
they will no longer ask for Jalosjos’s confinement at
the hospital since his health has returned to normal.
Jalosjos
is now taking the medicines that were prescribed to him
by the physicians.
On
Wednesday the camps of Jalosjos and the Solicitor
General submitted their respective memoranda to the
court on the former congressman’s petition of habeas
corpus.
Thousands of supporters of Jalosjos staged a rally on
Wednesday afternoon in Dipolog City to press for his
permanent release.
Jalosjos’s supporters denounced the “apparent bias” of
the government against him.
They
said that while a lot of prisoners who have been granted
commutation of sentence were released during the
Christmas season, the convicted child-rapist was not.
Jalosjos
was issued a discharge certificate from prison dated
December 16, 2007, but was rearrested on orders from the
justice department.
The
ralliers, who included the mayors of Zamboanga del
Norte, wore black arm bands to show their disgust over
Jalosjos’s situation.
The
former congressman is considered as the province’s
“godfather.” (With B. Garcia Jr.) |
