- After hearing this afternoon the urgent motion of Napoles to be moved, for security reasons, from Makati city jail either to Camp Crame in EDSA, Quezon City, Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig, MM, or Camp Sto. Domingo in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, where the jail warden of Makati City and the NCR CIDG director testified that they could not guarantee the security of Napoles at the Makati city jail, the Judge Elmo Alameda of the Regional Trial Court, Branch 150, of Makati City, issued an order granting the motion and ordering the immediate transfer of Napoles from Makati city jail to Camp Sto. Domingo in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, according to DZMM, DZBB, and DZRH field news reports.
The pork barrel queen Napoles can now be ranked with VIPs like Erap Estrada, Misuari, and Honasan, who were past detainees at Camp Sto. Domingo, which is a PNP special action force training camp.
I hope I am wrong (and I wish the PNP will correct me on this), but as a VIP detainee in a special PNP camp which is not under the direct control of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), whose detention rules and regulations are very strict, I suppose Napoles will enjoy certain special amenities which are not enjoyed by poor and helpless prisoners locked up in overcrowded, dirty, unventilated, and sick local jails, such as, but not necessarily limited to, an air condition unit, a refrigerator, landline and mobile telephone units, access to internet via her own laptop and her private WIFI connection, unlimited visits by her family, a private menu of dishes, delicacies and drinks that suit her billionaire palate, and
the like.
The irony of our democracy is that the huge expenses for the prolonged, special and VIP detention of rich and powerful personalities who had robbed the country of billions of tax money, are funded by the very same tax money of the common tao and small and hardworking entrepreneurs that the government has forcefully exacts, under pain of imprisonment, from their suffering, ailing, undernourished ignorant and obedient
pockets.
Who says that life is fair?
Who says that there is no "de facto caste system" in our democracy?
- Atty. Manuel J. Laserna Jr.
Laserna Cueva-Mercader Law Offices
Las Pinas City
