EDITORIAL - Another VIP detainee

Sen. Panfilo Lacson described as a “miracle” his colleague Rodante Marcoleta’s recovery from the illnesses that warranted hospital confinement instead of jail detention for over a week following his arrest for plunder.

But wait, it turns out that there’s another VIP inmate who has enjoyed a far longer hospital stay than Marcoleta.

This is mining executive Joseph Sy, accused of being a Chinese national named Chen Zhong Zhen. Like former Bamban mayor Alice Guo, Sy allegedly faked his Philippine citizenship.

The Bureau of Immigration announced that Sy, chairman of Global Ferronickel Holdings Inc., would be returned to BI detention within the week after being declared medically fit following a monthlong confinement in a medical facility that the BI did not identify, although reports pointed to one of the country’s top private hospitals.

Immigration Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado said the BI allowed the 60-year-old Sy’s long hospital stay based on “humanitarian and medical grounds.”

Viado should specify what these grounds are. Otherwise, the director of the Philippine General Hospital, Dr. Gerardo Legaspi, should also be tasked to conduct an independent medical assessment of Sy, to determine if the BI mollycoddled a VIP inmate.

The Philippine National Police has denied that it gave special treatment to Marcoleta, and defended the PNP doctors who said he needed isolation in a hospital for pneumonia and that he suffered for, among others, an enlarged heart.

Despite the supposedly infectious illness, the PNP allowed Marcoleta to be visited by Vice President Sara Duterte and Sen. Robinhood Padilla.

Tasked by a skeptical Sandiganbayan to conduct an independent medical examination, Legaspi said PGH doctors found that the heart was normal, that the pneumonia was mild and Marcoleta had recovered sufficiently to be discharged from the hospital. Marcoleta arrived in a wheelchair at the Sandiganbayan but was seen walking briskly as he was moved to the New Quezon City Jail.

Sy was arrested at the NAIA on Aug. 21, 2025 upon arrival from Hong Kong. BI officials said his fingerprints matched those of a Chinese citizen with a long-term visa and Alien Certificate of Registration.

Viado said the BI would continue providing medical attention to Sy anytime he needs it, in line with “humanitarian standards and applicable regulations.”

Malacañang should put its foot down on the use of medical issues for evading regular detention, and order a probe of those who allow it. This is another form of selective justice: one for moneyed or influential inmates, and another for the hoi polloi.