Friday, December 28, 2007 Wenceslao: Jalosjos’ caper By Bong O. Wenceslao Candid Thoughts
SAN Ramon Prison and Penal Farm Colony is in Zamboanga City. Unlike the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center that made some noise because of the inmates’ algorithm dance posted in Youtube, this detention center is not that known outside of Mindanao. But the caper of convicted rapist Romeo Jalosjos changed that.
Here’s what a resident near the facility said, according to an Inquirer report: “There were so many luxurious cars parked outside. So many people going inside and leaving the prison farm.” When the report was written, Jalosjos had been arrested after he left the National Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa and boarded a plane for Dapitan City.
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez conceded that Jalosjos, an ally of President Arroyo, has control of almost the entire Zamboanga del Norte, although he denied that Malacañang has given him preferential treatment. But I don’t think that point did not play a part in the President’s decision to lower Jalosjos’ sentence of two life terms to 16 years.
Which reminds me of another high-profile convict, this time for plunder, Joseph Estrada. In jail, big-name politicians in their “luxurious cars” paid homage to him, in much the same way that the influential in Zamboanga del Norte visited Jalosjos at the San Ramon prison. Estrada for the country and San Juan, Jalosjos for Zamboanga.
There, too, is Ruben Ecleo. Though not yet a convict, the former Dinagat mayor was given special treatment in jail and was allowed to post bail after one doctor claimed he was a “walking time bomb” and might die in prison. Ecleo did not explode and obviously won’t explode soon. His family controls Dinagat Island in Surigao del Norte.
But this is what our criminal justice system is about, claims that it actually works notwithstanding. And this is also what our politics is about. So a Jalosjos, an Erap and others like them are not the exception but are the rule. The influential evade prosecution or when jailed are given special treatment. When convicted, they are pardoned.
What makes Jalosjos’ caper ironic is that the government, specifically the pardoning authority, is the one shamed. Jalosjos is hitting back at Malacañang for extending his stay in jail despite the issuance of a release order for him. His lawyer is even ranting about the arresting officers being “liable for warrantless arrest.”
Uh-oh. Had the President not commuted Jalosjos’ two life sentences to 16 years, he would have been left to rot in jail. Or had the president not been Arroyo, he would not have reacquired the swagger he is walking around with now. This president wants to survive until 2010 so she is doing everything to get the sympathy of the influential.
At least in the case of Jalosjos, Malacañang is hitting back. But it could not do the same with Erap, who is going around rebuilding his image and political organization while hitting the President whenever he could. It looks like Estrada, who was deposed in 2001, and not Arroyo, who rose to power because of Erap’s fall, will have the last laugh.
P.S. This is for those who spent a part of their precious time just to greet me on Christmas Day and for those who sent the usual Christmas presents. And since I won’t have a column for New Year, here’s wishing all my readers and everybody a happy 2008.
