No selective justice, only due process

Those who continue to protest the grant of bail to Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile should study what the concept of due process really means instead of reacting in knee-jerk fashion and betraying their fundamental lack of understanding of the law.

      

According to the peanut gallery, plunder is a capital offense and is therefore nonbailable.  Hence, Enrile should stay in hospital detention in Camp Crame because he committed a nonbailable offense.

      

Other critics also say that Enrile does not deserve to be treated with kid gloves and freed temporarily out of humanitarian considerations  precisely because plunder is a serious crime. 

      

There also those who say that Enrile is powerful and influential, not to mention affluent, and therefore, the eight Supreme Court Associate Justices who supported the petition to grant him bail may have been intimidated by the senator's political clout or worse, may have been bribed to let him go.

      

All these arguments are wrong.

      

In the first place, the criminal complaint against Enrile does not contain a bill of particulars, such as when he purportedly received pork barrel funds, in what amounts, and so on. Without these details, the charge of plunder would be very difficult to prove.

      

Second, Enrile is more than 90 years old and ailing. He deserves to be granted bail and given the appropriate medical care as a  humanitarian and compassionate gesture. Besides, he is not a flight risk given his frail health.

      

And third, the Supreme Court issued a ruling based on the merits of the bail petition. As a lawyer himself, Enrile knows what is due process, and the magistrates simply acknowledged that the arguments raised by the senator were sound and irrefutable.

      

Those who say that selective justice is at work in the case of the bail granted to Enrile are wrong, dead wrong.

      

Let Enrile resume his work in the Senate and prepare for his legal defense against the charges of plunder and graft raised against him. And while he's out on bail, let him contribute to resolving the problems that the nation faces at this critical juncture through his work as a senator. –End-

Image by: Rappler.com