The humanitarian factor in the bail issue

IN his petition for bail, Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile laid out a legal basis for the petition which may be stated briefly as follows: Bail may be denied if the charge is a capital offense and the evidence of guilt is strong. Under the plunder law, the penalty is only reclusion temporal if two mitigating circumstances of advanced age and voluntary surrender are present. Thus Enrile said he was entitled to bail as a constitutional right.

Apart from this legal point, the Supreme Court, in voting 8-4 to approve the petition for bail, also considered humanitarian grounds. On top of his advanced age of 91, Enrile was suffering from various illnesses, including high blood pressure, diabetes, and gastro-intestinal bleeding.

It seems certain quarters are now questioning the wisdom of a court granting bail on humanitarian grounds. A Malacañang spokesman expressed concern that the court ruling might benefit other detainees similarly situated, including former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

It must be stressed, however, that the humanitarian angle was merely a supporting factor in Enrile’s petition for bail. Its main point was still the legal provision that with the two conditions of advanced age and voluntary surrender, the penalty in case of conviction is only reclusion temporal. And therefore bail may be granted by a court.

In the midst of all this disputation, it must be pointed out that while humanitarian considerations may not have been the principal legal basis for the Senator Enrile’s petition, humanitarian values are important in our culture as a people. The very Preamble of our Constitution declares that the Filipino people do ordain and promulgate it, in order, among other aims, “to build a just and humane society.”

Even during the regime of martial law in the 1970s, despite the conviction of Senator Benigno S. Aquino Jr. by a military court for subversion and murder, President Marcos allowed him to leave for the United States for treatment after he suffered a heart attack in prison. More recently, President Estrada was convicted by the Sandiganbayan of plunder but he was allowed to stay in his detention home in Tanay, Rizal.

Let us not denigrate the concept of humane consideration in our national life. Legal principles must be upheld in legal proceedings, but where it is allowed, the human angle, the human factor, must be seen and accepted as very much a part of what it means to be a Filipino.