THE Regional Trial Court (RTC) dismissed yesterday the criminal case against two men for the 2007 robbery of a Cebu City-based cooperative.

In dismissing the case, Judge Gabriel Ingles chided the prosecution for wasting his time.

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All three of the prosecution’s witnesses, all employees of the People’s Multi-Purpose Cooperative, failed to identify Joel Sumabong and Efren Beladas during the hearings. The two are accused of being notorious robbers.

“Evidently, they were fall guys. The filing of the case had no other purpose than to keep my clients in jail even if unwarranted,” defense lawyer Lani Villarino said in an interview after the hearing.

Sumabong initially caught the media’s attention when he, together with a crew that included Beladas, were tagged as responsible for the August 2005 robbery of the Bogo City branch of the Land Bank of the Philippines.

Sumabong later accused former Bogo City mayor Celestino “Tining” Martinez III of being the brains behind the P9.4-million robbery.

Sumabong and Beladas were also accused in the May 2005 killing of Alberto Tepait in Bogo City. Villarino represents them in that case, which is still pending before the 8th RTC branch.

Sumabong, who denied all three charges, was arrested in January 2006 in a raid by the National Bureau of Investigations (NBI) on a farm in San Rafael, Iloilo.

After being turned over to police, he executed an affidavit, on the premise he would be made a state witness, naming Martinez as the brains behind the Land Bank heist. Martinez denied the charge.

In the affidavit, Sumabong said that when Martinez was mayor he formed a liquidation squad that carried out extra-judicial killings, including the hit on Tepait.
Martinez denied the accusations, and no proof was found to make it stick.

Sumabong and his crew, however, were charged with a non-bailable murder case on the basis of his own confession. That was on top of the original charge for robbery, which he posted bail for.

Villarino said yesterday’s dismissal of the case shows that the police treated her clients as “the usual suspects” and lodged complaints simply to “keep them in jail.”

She said the murder case was filed only after her clients were released on bail for the robbery charge.

In an interview during the preliminary investigation of the murder rap, Villarino pointed out that while the police used Sumabong’s own statement as the basis in the filing
of the case, the document was clear in tagging a certain Boy Tagalog.

The filing of the robbery case for the Jan. 3, 2007 heist on the People’s Multi-Purpose Cooperative in Talamban, Cebu City was no different, Villarino said.

She said the police was able to gather affidavits from Gina Planteras, Rossyl Monrado and Joy Atamosa who all identified Sumabong and Beladas as the robbers.

But when the three witnesses separately took the stand – Planteras last May 7, 2008, Monrado last June 18 and Atamosa yesterday – none were able to pinpoint the two accused apart from the people present during the hearings.

In ordering the dismissal, Ingles cited Sec. 23, Rule 119 of the Rules of Court: “After the prosecution rests its case, the court may dismiss the action on the ground of insufficiency of evidence… on its own initiative after giving the prosecution the opportunity to be heard.”

The requirement of the prosecution being heard was complied with when Assistant City Prosecutor Alexander Acosta rested his case yesterday.

He asked Villarino if she intended to cross-examine the witness and when Villarino said she had no questions, the judge then handed down the verdict. (KNR)