AN anti-crime advocacy group on Monday criticized the alleged special treatment being given to Sen. Leila de Lima, who is detained on drug trafficking charges at the custodial center of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Camp Crame that hosts VIP detainees.

In a three-page letter to Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) said the equal protection clause of the Constitution must be employed in de Lima’s case, meaning she should be placed in a regular jail.

VACC founding chairman Dante Jimenez argued that de Lima should be under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology. He cited Republic Act 6975 or the law that established the PNP under the Department of the Interior and Local Government.





“In our humble research and inquiries from experts in the field of law, we find no concrete basis under existing laws or procedure to sustain or validate such an apparently undue classification. In can be no less than a special treatment,” the VACC chief said.

Jimenez said the equal protection clause was violated because de Lima is in Camp Crame while former corrections chief Rafael Ragos is at the National Bureau of Investigation’s Detention Cell and the senator’s ex-boyfriend Ronnie Dayan is at Muntinlupa City Jail.

“We, all of us, cannot further allow this continuing disregard or even the slightest dilution of the basic Constitutional precept of ‘equal protection of the law,’” Jimenez said.