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Hospital and house arrests are accepted detention measures

Press Statements
  • Rep. Edcel C. Lagman
  • House Minority Leader
  • 28 November 2011
  • 0916-6406737 / 0918-9120137

         Hospital and house arrests are accepted detention measures in lieu of prison confinement, particularly during the pre-trial and pre-conviction phases of criminal prosecution.

           House arrest has been upheld in several decisions of the Supreme Court as a reasonable measure to secure the safety of an accused and prevent his escape, consistent with the standard for custody provided in RA 7438 (An Act Defining Certain Rights of Person Arrested, Detained or Under Custodial Investigation As Well As The Duties of the Arresting, Detaining and Investigating Officers, and Providing Penalties For Violations Thereof).

             Pending final conviction, detention is not a punitive action but a custodial safeguard.

             Notable instances of house arrest are those involving Ahmed Ben Bella, former President of Algeria; Jorge Videla, former President of Argentina; Aung San Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize and leader of her country's pro-democracy movement; Augusto Pinochet, former President of Chile, placed under house arrest by his country’s Supreme Court; and Zhao Ziyang, purged Communist Chinese leader who was put under house arrest for the last 16 years of his life after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.

           Muhammad Naguib, former President of Egypt; Sukarno, First President of Indonesia; Mohammad Mosaddegh,  former Premier of Iran; Shehu Shagari, President of Nigeria; Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, 9th Prime Minister and 4th President of Pakistan; Chia Thye Poh, former leftist Member of Parliament of Singapore; Bram Fischer, former South African Communist Party leader was diagnosed with cancer while in prison and was placed under house arrest due to pressure from the anti-apartheid groups; former Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev; Habib Bourguiba, former President of Tunisia; and Muhammad VIII al-Amin, former King of Tunisia.

           American domestic guru Martha Stewart was sentenced to five months of house arrest; and Paris Hilton, American socialite, was re-assigned to house arrest on June 7, 2007.

           The Roman Catholic Church placed Galileo Galilei under house arrest for his belief in Copernicus's theory of the sun as the center of the universe and all the planets and stars revolved around it. He stayed under house arrest until his death in 1642.

           In the case of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, antecedent to the issue of house arrest are (1) the prejudicial issue pending in the Supreme Court on the constitutionality and legitimacy of the composition of the DOJ-COMELEC panel which affects the validity of the filing of the poll sabotage case and the subsequent issuance of the warrant of arrest; and (2) the right to bail of the former President because the prosecution’s evidence against her is not strong, as in fact it is weak, hearsay and uncorroborated.