The robbery happened in Cebu over 40 years ago but the long arm of the law caught up with former Dapitan city mayor Dominador Jalosjos, who never served the sentence for the crime.
Police agents arrested the 72-year-old Jalosjos on Thursday inside the Cebu Doctor’s Hospital where he is confined for a heart ailment.
Jalosjos, owner of Dakak Beach Resort, voluntarily surrendered but remains at the hospital where his surgeon Dr. Peter Mancao said he needs a life-saving heart operation in the new few weeks.
Jalosjos is the older brother of former congressman and convicted child rapist Romeo Jalosjos.
The former mayor served three terms as Dapitan mayor and tried to run for governor of Zamboanga del Sur in 2013 when an election opponent dug up his records and discovered the unserved arrest warrant for his conviction in 1970, which knocked him out of the race.
TWILIGHT OF LIFE
Cebu City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Executive Judge Soliver Peras ordered the Cebu city jail office to secure Jalosjos in the hospital where he has been staying with his wife since Thursday.
Will Jalosjos’ poor health and advanced age keep him out of jail this time?
His lawyer Inocencio dela Cerna thinks so.
“He needs to rest for the open heart surgery and later on his recovery. His confinement at the hospital, however, is interpreted as already part of his sentence,” he said.
However, the decision is up to the judge who set the matter for hearing.
He ordered Dr. Mancao, a cardiovascular surgeon, to appear in court on Jan. 29 to explain why Jalosjos should remain at the hospital.
In a medical report submitted to the court, the doctor said Jalosjos has “coronary heart disease” which needs “immediate actions for the pre-operative work-up and to prepare him for surgery to repair this serious and life-threatening condition.”
Jalosjos was served the arrest warrant by agents of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) at about 5 p.m. of January 23.
Dela Cerna said his client would no longer contest the conviction after the Court of Appeals denied a petition to stop the implementation of the arrest warrant.
“We could have exhausted all other legal remedies but considering Jalosjos is already in the twilight of his life, he would rather serve the one year and a half imprisonment than wait for the decision of the Supreme Court,” the Cebu-based lawyer explained.
700-PESO CRIME
Jalosjos was found guilty of highway robbery in Cebu City in 1970. The amount involved was P700.
He was sentenced to one year and six months in jail and prohibited from holding office by the Court of First Instance (now called Regional Trial Court).
Jalosjos applied for probation which the court granted and he was released. However, he failed to regularly report to the probation officer so the court cancelled Jalosjos’ probation and ordered his arrest.
“All along he (Jalosjos) thought that he had already served his probation. That’s why he was very confident until he ran for governor of Zamboanga del Sur and the other party went over the records and found out that the warrant of arrest is still there,” Dela Cerna said.
Explaining his client’s non-reporting to the probation officer the lawyer cited distance. “He was in Dapitan City and the incident happened in Cebu so maybe that was the reason he failed to report to the probation officer,” said the lawyer.
Dela Cerna took over Jalosjos’ case which used to be handled by the law firm of Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III.
The Court of Appeals in Cebu City issued a temporary restaining order against the implementation of the arrest, but after it expired the court did not issue a permanent injunction.
In December 2003, Parole and Probation Administrator Gregorio Bacolod issued a certification that Jalosjos had fulfilled the terms and conditions of his probation. It turned out to be a falsified document.
Jalosjos ran for mayor in Dapitan Ciy in 2004 and won. The certification was used by Jalosjos to secure the dismissal of a disqualification case filed against him.
He served as mayor of Dapitan for three straight terms from 2004 to 2012, the maximum limit for an elected local official.
PERMANENT BAN
When Jalosjos tried to run for mayor of Zamboanga del Sur in the May 2013 elections the Supreme Court disqualified him due to his conviction for a robbery he had committed in Cebu in 1969.
The High Court said Jalosjos was permanently ineligible to hold or run for any elective office from the time his conviction became final.
Jalosjos’ candidacy was questioned by his losing opponent Agapito Cardino who said the former mayor lied in his certificate of candidacy when he declared under oath that he was eligible to run for that office.
The Sandiganbayan later found out that Bacolod had issued a falsified certification for Jalosjos, whose certificate of candidacy was void from the start.
His younger brother Romeo, a former congressman whose child molestation case lost him his seat in the House, also tried to run for mayor in Zamboanga City in the 2013 polls.
The Comelec blocked his bid.
The Supreme Court junked his petition for certiorari citing his “perpetual absolute disqualification” from holding public office because of his conviction for two counts of statutory rape of a minor and six counts of acts of lasciviousness on Nov. 16, 2001.
Even if he was pardoned by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the disqualification remains.
On April 30, 2007, Romeo Jalosjos’ sentence was commuted by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to 16 years, three months and three days. He walked out of prison in March 2009.
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