De Lima can receive visitors during holidays
The Philippine National Police (PNP) has granted the request of Sen. Leila de Lima to let her receive visitors on Christmas and New Year’s Day.
The PNP Custodial Center allowed De Lima’s relatives to visit her from 8 a.m. of Dec. 24 to 1 a.m. on Dec. 25, and on Christmas Day from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., according to an advisory from De Lima’s office on Thursday.
On New Year’s Day, the detained senator was also permitted to be visited by relatives starting 8 a.m. on Dec. 31 until 1 a.m. on Jan. 1, and from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. In her handwritten letter dated Dec. 15, De Lima requested Chief Insp. Erickson Polinag, Custodial Center commanding officer, that she be allowed to accept visitors during the holidays.
“Some family members, relatives and a few friends manifested their desire to join me for a mass lunch and merienda on Christmas Day and possibly on New Year,” she said in her letter.
“Since both holidays fall on a Monday, a no-visitor day, in the spirit of the yuletide season may I humbly request for an exemption from the no-visitor rule for both days and accordingly allow visitors from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.,” she added.
De Lima has been held at the custodial center since February for drug-related charges.
For the first time since they were detained in 2014, the Sandiganbayan allowed detained former senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla and his aide Richard Cambe to spend Christmas outside their detention cell.
In two separate resolutions dated Dec. 20, released to the media yesterday, the Sandiganbayan First Division partially granted Revilla and Cambe’s request for a furlough to spend Christmas with their families in Cavite.
Revilla and Cambe were allowed to leave their detention on Dec. 24 for 10 hours or from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Revilla is set to spend Christmas Eve with his family in Bacoor while Cambe would stay with his brother in Imus.
Revilla and Cambe are also detained at the PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame since June 2014 for their plunder case in connection with the multibillion-peso pork barrel fund scam.
Revilla, through Cambe, allegedly received from businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles P224.5 million in kickbacks or commissions in exchange for the allocation of his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel to the latter’s bogus non-government organizations (NGOs).
Napoles, the alleged mastermind of the scam, is detained at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City.
Revilla, in his motion filed on Dec. 12, originally prayed to the First Division to allow him to leave his detention from 11 a.m. on Dec. 24 until 8 p.m. on Dec. 25 and at 11 a.m. on Dec. 31 until 8 p.m. on Jan. 1.
The First Division did not cite any reason for not granting in full the requested days of Revilla. Rather, it reminded the former senator that he must leave his residence in Bacoor not later than 9 p.m. on Dec. 24.
The court also directed the PNP to coordinate with the Sandiganbayan sheriffs in providing personal escorts and other security measures to Revilla and Cambe during their furlough. The court said the PNP must also supervise Revilla and Cambe’s use of electronic and communication devices.
The court also stressed that the two former officials must shoulder all the expenses to be incurred by the PNP during their movement from and to their detention.
The court said Revilla and Cambe are also not allowed to grant any media interview during the furlough.
It was the first time the First Division granted a Christmas furlough to Revilla. In December 2016, the former senator filed a similar motion praying to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with his family but it was denied by the court.