EDITORIAL - Age is no excuse

The convict claims to be suffering from Type 2 diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease and wants to be spared from regular imprisonment on humanitarian grounds.

This is not former first lady Imelda Marcos, but retired police Senior Superintendent Salvador Duran Sr., 71. The same fifth division of the Sandiganbayan that convicted Marcos, at 89 still a member of the House of Representatives, and then allowed her to post bail for seven counts of graft has rejected Duran’s plea to be placed under hospital arrest or spared altogether from imprisonment.

The anti-graft court explained that Duran’s 2009 conviction for graft has been affirmed with finality by the Supreme Court and he has to start serving his sentence. Duran was found guilty in connection with P10 million worth of ghost purchases of police combat clothing and equipment in 1992. Arrested last month, Duran can apply for parole, the Sandiganbayan noted, but he has to be committed first to a national prison.

Advanced age does not exempt an offender from punishment, the court stressed, adding that Duran committed the crime when he was 45 years old. If he had committed the crime at age 70, it could be a mitigating circumstance, the court noted.

The public can only hope the court remembers this in dealing with Imelda Marcos, and other individuals who face graft and plunder cases involving amounts far larger than P10 million. If advanced age becomes a guaranteed get-out-of-jail ticket, you can expect government officials and employees to steal as much as they can from public coffers and collect as much commissions and grease money as they can when they approach retirement age.

The situation will become worse if only the biggest thieves, whose massive loot allows them to hire expensive lawyers and buy favorable rulings from hoodlums in robes, are granted this privilege of exemption from imprisonment due to age. This can be abused as easily as the law that exempts children from arrest and criminal prosecution, making them ideal couriers of drug traffickers, gambling barons and even terrorist groups.

Anyone who believes he or she is healthy enough for public service must be considered healthy enough to face prosecution and suffer the penalties in case public trust is betrayed and the law is violated. Leniency can come after the minimum penalty has been served. There can be no exemption from public accountability; impunity reigns when people see that they can get away with crime.