Caloocan court frees 72-year-old jeepney driver

MANILA, Philippines — A Caloocan Metropolitan Trial Court (MTC) yesterday ordered the release from detention of 72-year-old Elmer Cordero, one of the six jeepney drivers arrested last week in Caloocan for holding a rally and allegedly violating social distancing protocols during the quarantine.

In the release order signed by MTC Branch 51 Presiding Judge Gloria Santos Jr., Cordero was ordered released after posting P10,000 bail in a decades-old estafa case.

According to lawyers VJ Topacio and Henrie Enaje, Cordero forgot about his pending estafa case when he failed to mention this to his lawyers attending to his simple disobedience case.

Without giving specifics, Topacio said the case was a “simple” estafa charge filed by a private complainant in 2002.

Cordero and five other members of the militant transport group Piston were charged by the Caloocan police for simple disobedience for allegedly resisting police dispersing their demonstration along EDSA on June 2.

The drivers denied they resisted arrest, saying they were only invited for questioning.

Cordero was the eldest among the arrested drivers, four of whom were released on Monday while he and Wilson Ramilla remained in detention due to pending cases.

Ramilla was also released yesterday after his lawyers were able to certify from the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology and the Board of Pardons and Parole his claim that he served his sentence on plea bargain in a carnapping case and a second count was provisionally dismissed.