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Wednesday, January 08, 2003
Arnault ruling still applies: guv
By Giovannie A. Nilles/Karen M. Flores
DESPITE its age, the jurisprudence in the Arnault case remains applicable today because the right to invoke silence as a guard against self-incrimination does not apply in all cases, said Cebu Gov. Pablo Garcia.
Garcia, a lawyer and a former congressman, yesterday said a witness can only invoke this right if his liberty is at stake. It can be called upon if there is a “tendency in reason to implicate oneself in a crime.”
Otherwise, he said, every witness will invoke this right to answer every question, including his name and residence.
But lawyer Alan Trinidad said witnesses in the congressional inquiry last Monday should be allowed to invoke their right against self-incrimination.
Trinidad, president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Cebu province chapter, said that if this is not allowed, the witness may no longer be allowed by the courts to invoke this right if a case will be filed before the courts.
He also said the members of the House committee on human rights should be allowed to make public their assessments or recommendations.
“They are not actually passing judgment but are just trying to find the truth,” he added.
Trinidad was reacting to the criticisms of defense lawyer Celso Espinoza, who said over radio dyLA that the congressmen who attended the House inquiry last Monday were already acting as both judges and prosecutors by passing judgment on the statements given during the hearing.
National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7 special investigator Arnel Pura invoked his right to remain silent last Monday when he refused to answer when asked to reveal the names of the confidential agents who took part in the Dec. 13 botched operation.
Pura and other NBI agents appeared before the House committee on civil, political and human rights to narrate what happened when a Plantation Bay resort van carrying innocent civilians was strafed.
Trinidad cited the Supreme Court decision on People of the Philippines. vs. Nicanor Jimenez where the court ruled that “the inability to protest on the right against self-incrimination at the first stage of a proceeding may make its invocation at a latter stage useless.”
This means, Trinidad said, that a witness or an accused appearing before the House committee hearing may no longer avail of the right against self-incrimination if he did not avail of this during the committee hearing.
(January 8, 2003 issue)
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