THE RULE in this country is that everyone has the right to be free on bail pending trial of a criminal case. This assurance is right there in the Constitution.
This rule is a sister to that other rule – that in all criminal prosecutions the accused shall be presumed innocent until the contrary is proved.
The State will not imprison a person who is constitutionally presumed innocent while it is in the process of proving said person guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the crime he had been charged with.
Pre-trial and trial proceedings normally take at least a year in our jurisdiction. Everyone is allowed to post bail in the meantime that those proceedings unfold.
***
There are occasions, however, when bail is not mandatory but depends on the wisdom of the judge. Bail is denied when a person is charged with a capital offense and the evidence of guilt is strong.
Murder, rape with homicide, and plunder are examples of such crimes.
Evaluation of evidence is the exclusive function of the judge hearing the case. A famous recent example of the judge granting bail while the accused is on trial for a capital offense is that of Vhong Navarro who has now resumed his showbiz career. Evidence of guilt was found not strong enough to deny bail.
***
In practice the judge does not evaluate the weight of prosecution evidence right off the bat. The accused in a capital offense case has to file a petition for bail and the prosecutors are then directed to show that the evidence of guilt is strong.
The problem is that bail hearings can take as much time as the actual trial itself. Many cases require years to resolve. The accused, who is presumed innocent, languishes in detention while the judge attempts to determine whether the evidence of his guilt is “strong.”
***
Detention facilities in the Philippines are overcrowded, substandard, and cesspools of bad bacteria. The treatment is inhuman, which again transgresses the constitutional edict against cruel and inhuman punishment.
Detention pending trial is legally not a penalty yet, but the patently inhuman conditions in our prison walls is punishment without equal.
The State is in continuing violation of Article 3, section 19 of the Constitution which requires government to pass a law outlawing the use of substandard or inadequate penal facilities with subhuman conditions.
***
The Supreme Court resolution on Jessica Lucila (Gigi) Reyes did not involve an issue regarding the right to bail. But her temporary liberty is akin to that of being granted bail pending trial.
As discussed, temporary liberty pending trial of a capital offense case does not happen unless the judge says the evidence of guilt is not strong.
Space was found in our system of laws where the court could free a detainee in a capital offense case without first weighing the strength of the prosecution evidence.
***
Reyes had been in detention for nine years.
The Supreme Court decided to free her on habeas corpus in the meantime that her plunder case before the Sandiganbayan is being heard. The Court said that she is entitled to a speedy, impartial, and public trial. She has the inherent right to liberty.
The Court did not say the evidence of her guilt is weak. Only that she may not be committed to detention for an indefinite period of time to the extent that her constitutional rights are disregarded. The plunder case against her has not been dismissed. She will continue to face it in court, but out of jail while doing so.
If at all, this case highlights how slowly the wheels of criminal justice turn in this country. As they say, justice delayed is justice denied. A more responsive bail system can be one of the answers./PN
