MANILA – Detained Sen. Leila de Lima has filed a bill that will allow terminally ill inmates to serve their sentence under the care of their families or seek better medical care outside the correctional facilities.
With Senate Bill No. (SBN) 2084, De Lima said that a medical parole, also known as “compassionate parole” should be granted to qualified inmates on humanitarian or medical grounds.
“The grant of medical parole presupposes that the conditional release of a prisoner will not constitute a threat to the safety of the society,” said De Lima, who chairs the Senate committee on social justice, welfare and rural development.
Medical parole is defined as the “conditional release of a prisoner from a correctional institution on the ground that he is suffering from a terminal illness or an incapacity that renders him incapable of managing his own affairs.”
De Lima said that medical parole will not only provide for a humane treatment of terminally-ill or permanently-incapable prisoners but also allow the conditional release of prisoners who are no longer capable of serving their sentences.
“This bill is meant to allow prisoners to serve out their sentence under the care of their families or seek better medical care outside the correctional facilities,” the former Department of Justice secretary said.
“(My proposed measure) provides a mechanism for citizens and interested parties to oppose any application as a matter of check against any improvident or even fraudulent grant of medical parole,” she added.
Under SBN 2084, the grant of medical parole may be opposed depending on the severity of the inmate’s illness, or his release will be a threat to public safety or the inmate is likely to commit an offense while on medical parole.
De Lima has earlier filed Senate Bill No. 1879 which seeks to integrate the management of the country’s jails and prisons under one agency tasked to provide better treatment and rehabilitation program for all detainees and prisoners./PN
