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Thursday, October 20, 2005
Seares: Removing blockade and that fall guy
By Pachico A. Seares
The view from here
Sweet and inspiring news came one day after the other.
Last Tuesday, the Regional Trial Court ordered the lifting of the South Coastal Road (SCR) blockade.
Then on Wednesday, the Court of Appeals nullified the conviction of fall guy Cedrick Devinadera.
Sweet, because they help bring back people's faith in the justice system. Inspiring, because they show that a few of us can stand up to perceived tyrants or conspirators and succeed.
Removing the blockade
Who would have thought the court would rebuke Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña?
The mayor who runs the city as if most other people were vassals, who said no to Cardinal Vidal and Gov. Gwen Garcia, the mayor whom President Arroyo could not scare and business leaders meekly obey.
The same mayor who admitted having inspired extra-judicial killings, surely a crime and a sin, and boarded up the gate to the Basilica without getting excommunicated.
Thus, when Regional Trial Court Judge Soliver C. Peras saw through the mayor's ruse of closing a vital road in the guise of public safety and ordered the SCR re-opened, the cheering could be heard all over.
Probably, had the mayor said sooner that he never closed the SCR, an exercise in semantics even a kid won't buy, the judge would have been quicker in giving the order.
David and Goliath
Justice is much sweeter when people think it is beyond reach. It was so in the SCR blockade.
Watching giant Kaoshiong buses and armed police block the vital artery to and from the south, people thought the mayor could be so insensitive to public good and yet have his way again.
Hurray to Judge Peras, and to Atty. Alfredo J. Sipalay, literally a David to Osmeña's Goliath, who summoned enough courage to fire the first shot from his sling.
It was Sipalay who sued. Cebu City Integrated Bar, seeing the worthiness of the cause, both actual and symbolic, sent feisty Atty. Gloria Dalawampu to help Sipalay.
Sinister conspiracy
Standing up to a tyrant is as tough as exposing a sinister conspiracy against justice.
What else could you call Cedrick Devinadera's offered confession of having helped Ben Bacolod kill Alona Bacolod-Ecleo?
It was apparent from the first time it was reported that Devinadera was convicted as accomplice in the death of Alona. It was nothing but a setup to help clear Ruben Ecleo Jr. of the charge of parricide for the death of his wife, with Devinadera, a member of Ecleo's cult, as the patsy.
It became clear when it was known that (1) the solicitor general was not the one who filed the case against the fall guy, (2) the judge had no authority to act on the case, (3) the complainant was not a compulsory heir of the Bacolods, and (4) the arraignment and other proceedings were all a sham.
We applaud the judges---RTC Judge Leopoldo V. Ca¤ete and the Court of Appeals 20th Division headed by Chairman Isaias Dicdican that upheld Ca¤ete's decision---and the lawyers who also fought to frustrate the attempt to abort justice.
Surviving the blows
So many times, we have seen justice take a beating.
For a change, it's good to see justice survive the blows and stay standing, at least in these two infamous cases of Devinadera and the south coastal road.
That surely warms the heart, reaffirming faith and reviving hope.
(October 20, 2005 issue)
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