Court of Appeals junks Leviste's bail plea

MANILA, Philippines - The Court of Appeals (CA) has not allowed former Batangas governor Jose Antonio Leviste to post bail while appealing his conviction for killing his aide Rafael de las Alas two years ago.

The third division of the appellate court, in a 10-page resolution promulgated last Apr. 8, dismissed the urgent motion to post bail filed by Leviste’s lawyers last Jan. 15 for lack of merit.

Leviste’s lawyer, Henry Capela, said their motion for reconsideration is already pending before the CA since they received a copy of the resolution before the Holy Week. “I believe our client is entitled to bail,” Capela said.

In the ruling penned by division chair and Associate Justice Martin Villarama Jr., the CA stressed that application for bail shall be denied under the law “when the accused is charged with a capital offense, or an offense punishable by life imprisonment and evidence of guilt is strong.”

The Court said that in Leviste’s case, all these requirements are met.

“From the judgment of conviction rendered by the trial court, the prosecution had demonstrated that appellant’s guilt is strong, after finding that accused failed to satisfy the requirements of self-defense to justify the shooting of the victim,” read the decision.

The CA also did not give weight to Leviste’s allegedly deteriorating physical condition as a basis for granting his petition.

“Bail is not a sick pass for an ailing or aged detainee or prisoner needing medical care outside the prison facility. A mere claim of illness is not a ground for bail,” the resolution stated.

In seeking bail, Leviste’s camp earlier claimed he was suffering from anxiety, hypertensive cardiovascular disease, dyslipidemia, sleep apnea, poor hearing and with history of transient ischemic attack, and upper gastrointestinal bleeding.

Leviste submitted a medical certificate from Dr. Ma. Lourdes Razon, physician of New Bilibid Prisons hospital, but the CA said he is capable of seeking medical attention while confined at the New Bilibid Prisons and only merely prefers his personal physician who is anyway allowed to visit him inside the penitentiary.

‘Leviste mocked justice system’

Senior State Prosecutor Emmanuel Velasco, head of prosecution team in the trial, welcomed the CA’s decision.

“He mocked the criminal justice system immediately after conviction. He said justice system sucks. So he would appeal his conviction after mocking the court,” he told reporters in an interview at the Department of Justice yesterday.

Velasco, in their opposition to Leviste’s motion to post bail, said granting Leviste’s request “will be conferring upon him a special privilege that is violative of the equal protection of the law clause of the Constitution.”

He said “it will also create a bad precedent… It will now be easy for any convicted accused whose case is on appeal to make a mockery of the law by having his case immediately raffled under the pretext that his health condition is deteriorating,” he said.

Last Jan. 14, Makati City regional trial court Judge Elmo Alameda found Leviste guilty of homicide, ruling that he failed to satisfy the requirements of self-defense to justify the shooting of De las Alas on Jan. 12, 2007.

Leviste was sentenced to six to 12 years in jail, and ordered him to indemnify the De las Alas family with P50,000 and an additional P50,000 in moral damages.

Alameda said Leviste’s conviction canceled his standing bail bond and any motion for bail should be filed with the appellate court.   – With Mike Frialde