The advanced age of Rep. Imelda Marcos, the widow of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, is a non-issue consequent to her conviction for seven counts of corruption by the Sandiganbayan.

No law or jurisprudence exempts a felon from arrest or incarceration due to old age.

An offender who is over 70 years old is only entitled to a mitigating circumstance under Article 13 of the Revised Penal Code (RPC) and a death sentence cannot be inflicted on one over 70 years old pursuant to Article 83 of the RPC at the time when the death penalty was the capital punishment.

Neither can a Member of the House be privileged from arrest when the Congress is in session in offenses punishable for more than six years.

Imelda Marcos was sentenced to imprisonment of from six years and one month up to 11 years for each of the seven graft charges.

The granting of bail pending appeal to an accused convicted for an offense not punishable by reclusion perpetuaor life imprisonment by a Regional Trial Court or the equivalent tribunal like the Sandiganbayan is discretionary. 

In Leviste vs. Velasco (G.R. No. 189122, March 17, 2010), the Supreme Court ruled that: “In the exercise of that discretion, the proper courts are to be guided by the fundamental principle that the allowance of bail pending appeal should be exercised not with laxity but with grave caution and only for strong reasons, considering that the accused has been in fact convicted by the trial court.”

EDCEL C. LAGMAN