Mark Jimenez can’t post bail, DOJ lawyers tell Supreme Court

The Department of Justice (DOJ) maintained before the Supreme Court yesterday that US fugitive now Manila Rep. Mark Jimenez is not entitled to bail, not even after Manila Judge Guillermo Purganan allowed him to post a P1 million bail bond last July 3.

DOJ Undersecretary Merceditas Gutierrez and State Counsel Claro Flores argued before the High Court that the reference of Jimenez’s lawyer Mario Bautista to the ruling granting bail on extraditee Giancarlo Parretti was misplaced.

"For in this case, Parretti fled to the US after his release from custody. Indeed, fugitives, like Parretti and Jimenez, are serious flight risks," Gutierrez and Flores told the Supreme Court in a written petition.

The appearance that a potential extraditee wouldn’t flee "will not overcome the presumption against bail because it does not constitute a special circumstance. The lack of a risk of flight is not such a special circumstance," they added.

Even Jimenez’s vow not to evade prosecution and that he needed medical treatment in the Philippines won’t hold water, since the sworn statement and medical certificate were not marked as evidence in court and were just made as attachments, the government lawyers said.

"These assertions have no leg to stand on. Thus, they cannot consider as evidence in light of the following pronouncement of the Honorable Court in a long line of cases, " they added.

On July 17, the Supreme Court ordered Jimenez and Purganan to justify why the P1 million bail bond should not be canceled. The oral argument of the case is set to be held on Aug. 14 at the Supreme Court session hall.

Gutierrez and Flores said the bail should be canceled and Jimenez should be put behind bars because extradition laws provide no bail to extraditees.

They maintained in their 24-page petition that neither the Philippine Extradition Law (PD 1069) nor the RP-US Extradition Treaty provide bail bond privileges for extraditees.

"Jimenez is an imminent flight risk. The fact that Jimenez won a seat in Congress does not mean that he will not leave the country. If he flees, the government cannot extradite to the US his seat in Congress, or the (P1M) bond," the lawyers stressed.

"The omission of a bail provision in PD 1069, was not by inadvertence but was deliberate to prevent the flight of the person whose extradition is requested and to ensure the surrender of such person to the requesting state," they added.

Jimenez is wanted in the US because he is facing charges of tax evasion, mail fraud, and unlawful contribution in the 1996 election of former US President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore. – Delon Porcalla