Day 1, former Batangas Gov. Jose Antonio Leviste hopes to post bail and allowed to leave temporarily the New Bilibid Prisons in Muntinlupa City to join his family, his counsel said yesterday.

Lawyer Henry Capela said his client expected the transfer.

“He told me that ‘there is a reason for everything’ and that ‘something positive will come out of this’,” he said, recalling an early morning conversation.

Leviste was brought to the state penitentiary from Makati City Jail, where he was held since Jan. 14.

He was driven straight to the NBP’s Reception and Diagnostic Center for medical and psychological tests, noted Capela.

“At 69, he’s not supposed to be in prison and unjustly experience prison life,” he said, fearing that Leviste’s incarceration might lead to permanent physical impairment and possibly death.

“He is under maintenance medicines and we know that in prison, there is a scarcity of it. My client will have no direct access to medicines.”

Capela said there was no question over the Bilibid commitment order of Judge Elmo Alameda of the Makati Regional Trial Court.

“We will abide by it regardless kung tama ’yun o hindi [right or wrong], but the rule of law should have been observed. We’re not seeking any special treatment here.”

He noted that Leviste has not been convicted by final judgment pending review by the Court of Appeals.

Capela also played down talks that Leviste, like other high-profile inmates, would be given VIP treatment.

“They should not be judgmental. Remember, my client is serving his sentence despite being unjustly convicted,” he said, adding that Leviste would not mind being treated as an ordinary detainee.

“We will undergo all the processes to have him taken out of prison,” Capela said.

He said Leviste would stay for diagnostics for two months before he goes to his cell.

Leviste was found guilty of homicide for killing his aide Rafael delas Alas at LPL Towers in Legaspi Village, Makati City, on Jan. 12, 2007. Up to his day of conviction, he was insisting that it was done in self-defense. Ferdinand Fabella