Tuesday, March 25, 2008 CA refuses to stop warrant v. Esperat suspects
TACURONG City journalist Marlene Esperat was killed three years ago yesterday and the persons accused of being the masterminds in her assassination may now finally be brought before the court for trial.
The 19th Division of the Court of Appeals (CA) yesterday denied a petition for a temporary restraining order on the warrant of arrest that Judge Simeon Dumdum issued against the alleged masterminds. The court, however, has set the the injunction case they filed for resolution.
By not issuing a temporary restraining order, the Feb. 4 warrant of arrest remains in effect. Osmeña Montañer and Estrella Sabay can be served their warrants and taken into custody any time.
Their only remedy is if the appellate court grants the injunction. But a ruling is not expected anytime soon.
SC action
This is since lawyer Nena Santos, counsel for the family of the late journalist, brought the matter to the attention to the Supreme Court (SC) via a “request for declaratory resolution” addressed to Chief Justice Reynato Puno.
As a result, resolving the issue hasn’t become a priority for a saddled appellate court.
“Let us wait for the Supreme Court in order that our actions here will not be considered moot and academic and in order that we will not be wasting our time arguing,” said Associate Justice Pampio Abarintos, chairman of the 19th Division, in open court yesterday.
The division heard oral arguments on the petition yesterday morning.
Dumdum ordered the arrest of Montañer and Sabay, the regional finance officer and accountant of the Department of Agriculture (DA) in Region 12 respectively, last Feb. 4.
This was immediately after the Department of Justice (DOJ) resolved to charge them in court here for giving the “direct orders and inducement” to kill Esperat.
Graft case
The journalist died last March 24, 2005 after she was gunned down inside her house in Tacurong City, Sultan Kudarat, in the presence of her children. She was 46.
Esperat was then the regional chemist of DA 12 but doubled as a journalist – writing a column in the Midland Review called “Madame Witness” and hosting her own radio program.
At the time of her death, she was pursuing a graft case against several DA officials, including then undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc-joc” Bolante, for allegedly dipping their fingers into a P432-million fertilizer fund.
Montañer and Sabay were regular topics in her column and radio program.
The alleged team of assassins – Randy Grecia, Gerry Cabayag and Estanislao Bismanos – were arrested and charged in Tacurong City but convicted here in Cebu City last Oct. 7, 2006 by RTC Judge Eric Menchavez, after the SC moved the venue of the hearing.
State witness
A fourth accused – Rowie Barua – was excused from the case after turning state witness not only against his co-accused but also the masterminds. He is currently under the justice department’s witness protection program.
The DOJ, after securing the conviction, filed a case against Montañer and Sabay in Cebu City, with the case getting raffled off to Dumdum.
In deciding to file the case here and not in Tacurong City, the justice department used as basis the same SC administrative order that moved the venue of the case against the assassins.
But Montañer and Sabay are using the same issue in their bid to get the warrant of arrest recalled.
They said the administrative order only bore the names of Bismanos, Cabayag, Grecia and Barua and excluded Montañer and Sabay.
Moreover, lawyer Cesar Jimenea said in court yesterday, the administrative order was issued after the Tacurong City Regional Trial Court issued an order that excluded Montañer and Sabay as accused in the case.
While the justice department filed a motion for reconsideration against the ruling, it was denied for being filed out of time. State prosecutors tried to revive the motion but even Judge Menchavez denied it.
‘No basis’
During yesterday’s hearing, Jimenea argued that there is no basis for filing the case against Montañer and Sabay here in Cebu City.
Thus, he stressed, the warrant of arrest that Judge Dumdum issued is void and cannot be enforced.
Santos, for her part, said the prosecution sees through what the defense is trying to state.
And since the center issue seems to be whether or not the SC intended to include the case against the masterminds when it resolved to transfer the venue of the original case to Cebu, the best solution is to ask the SC to clarify. (KNR)
