Abalos given 2-hour furlough

MANILA, Philippines - Detained former Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr. was granted a two-hour furlough by Pasay City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 112 Judge Jesus Mupas, allowing him to visit his home in Mandaluyong City.

This is the first time that Abalos was allowed to leave his detention cell at the Southern Police District in Taguig City since he was arrested last December for electoral sabotage.

Abalos has asked Mupas to allow him to visit his house, which was damaged during typhoon “Ondoy” and also to have lunch with his family.

A family source said that the Abalos clan will hold a reunion today, which also coincides with the birthday of the twin daughters of Mandaluyong Mayor BenhurAbalos.

Mayor Abalos, in an interview last December, said the family usually spends their noche buena at their ancestral home where supporters would make a courtesy call on his father, who was a former mayor of the city.

“We all grew up in our ancestral home and we see to it that every year we will have reunion,” the younger Abalos said.

The former Comelec chairman, meanwhile, was already granted bail for the 11 counts of electoral sabotage cases before Pasay RTC branch 117 of Judge Eugenio De Cruz.

However, he remains detained since his petition for bail for a separate case before Judge Mupas is still being deliberated on.

The next hearing for the bail petition was set on July 4.

Abalos and his lawyers manifested before the court their continuing objection to the simultaneous hearing of the bail petition and the motion to discharge of his co-accused, Yogie Martitizar.