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Friday, October 08, 2004
Luque's case raffled off
By Raquel C. Bagnol
* Judge Layague now handles raps vs militant leader
PROCEEDINGS on rebellion charges against Bayan Muna secretary general Alvin Luque will finally move on after the case was raffled off to Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 14 on Wednesday.
Luque's case will be handled by Judge William Layague after it was suspended for sometime while the RTC was awaiting for the Supreme Court (SC) to stipulate the guidelines on the re-raffling of the heinous cases.
Luque's case was earlier discharged from the sala of Judge Jesus V. Quitain of the RTC Branch 15 for re-raffling following a circular issued by the SC folding up heinous crimes courts in the country.
Based on the SC circular, RTC judges will now have an equal chance to handle heinous cases from the regular weekly raffling.
The circular was aimed to protect the lives of judges.
Quitain earlier ruled to sustain Luque's petition to suspend the issuance of a warrant of arrest against him in order to find probable cause that he may be guilty of rebellion as charged and ordered him to present evidences in court.
Rebellion charges were filed against Luque, Loreto Palma and 13 others for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government and giving financial aid to the New People's Army (NPA)'s Front Guerilla Unit (FGU) 52 operating in the hinterlands of Paquibato and Marilog districts from 1999 to to 2002.
Charges were filed by Capt. Ramon Torres, intelligence chief of the Army's 73rd Infantry Battalion.
But Luque claimed the charges were merely concocted by the soldiers to harass him.
Prosecutor Jofre Saniel recommended the filing of charges against Luque after finding probable cause that he may be guilty of inducing the FGU-52 to burn buses, forcibly extract revolutionary 'taxes' or contribution from civilians, intimidation of security guards, cattle rustling, public alarm and scandal.
(October 8, 2004 issue)
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