Aquino: Enrile ‘deserves consideration’ in jail

President Benigno Aquino III said on Tuesday, June 24, that the court should consider the age and medical condition of Senator Juan Ponce Enrile, who is facing plunder charges before the Sandiganbayan. “I’m sure the courts will be cognizant of fulfilling the obligations,” Aquino said, but added that “the advanced age of Senator Enrile” should also be a factor. Aquino cited the Bill of Rights which prohibits inhuman or cruel punishment. The anti-graft court has yet to issue a decision on whether there is probable cause to the charges filed against Enrile. Critics have hit President Aquino for allowing Enrile’s co-accused senators Bong Revilla Jr and Jinggoy Estrada to stay in special custom-built cells in Camp Crame. Cultural historian John Silva, in an open letter to the president, questioned Aquino’s “kid glove” treatment of the three accused and compared it against the imprisonment of the president’s father, senator Ninoy Aquino, during martial law.

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