Friday, March 28, 2008
Appeals court restrains arrest
THE 19th Division of the Court of Appeals, based in Cebu City, has restrained the enforcement of a warrant of arrest against the alleged masterminds in the killing of journalist Marlene Esperat.
Signed by Associate Justices Pampio Abarintos, Francisco Acosta and Amy Lazaro Javier, the order came after a hearing where the same justices expressed the need to solicit the Supreme Court’s clarification on whether it intended to include the alleged masterminds when it ruled to move the hearing of the murder case from Tacurong City to Cebu.
They acknowledged that the Supreme Court’s Nov. 23, 2005 resolution moving the trial from the place of the murder to Cebu referred to a specific docket that identified the respondents as Estanislao Bismanos, Randy Grecia, Rowie Barua, Gerry Cabayag, Osmeña Montañer and Estrella Sabay. However, the case against Montañer and Sabay had already been dismissed beforehand.
Same date
When the ruling was finally issued, it hadn’t yet been revived.
“After due consideration of the petition, the comment and the arguments raised in the hearing on March 24, 2008, pending resolution on the application for a writ of preliminary injunction, we resolve to issue a temporary restraining order,” the division ruled.
The journalist, coincidentally, died exactly three years ago from the date of the CA hearing.
She was gunned down inside her house in Tacurong City, Sultan Kudarat, in the presence of her children. She was 46.
At the time of her death, she was the regional chemist of the Department of Agriculture (DA) 12 but doubled as a journalist, writing a column in the Midland Review called “Madame Witness” and hosting her own radio program.
She pursued graft cases against several people, including fellow officials, for allegedly dipping their fingers into a P432-million fertilizer fund that also impleaded then undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc-joc” Bolante.
The alleged team of assassins—Grecia, Cabayag and 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 hearing.
A fourth accused, Barua, was excused from the case after turning state witness not only against his co-accused but also the alleged masterminds. He is currently under the justice department’s witness protection program.
The Department of Justice (DOJ), after securing the conviction, filed a case against Montañer and Sabay in Cebu City.
To stop the warrant from getting restrained, Nena Santos, the lawyer representing the Esperat family, asked the Supreme Court whether it intended to include the case against the masterminds in the transfer of venue. (KNR)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (March 28, 2008 issue)
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