|
Wednesday, April 16, 2003
Lacson lawyers ask SC to inhibit Callejo in Kuratong case
By Benjamin B. Pulta
LAWYERS of opposition Senator Panfilo M. Lacson Tuesday asked the Supreme Court to reconsider its order for his indictment in the Kuratong Baleleng multiple murder case.
In a 99-page motion, defense counsel Sigmund Fortun urged the tribunal to modify its earlier decision, which had paved the way for Lacson’s prosecution.
Lacson urged the court to direct the recusation of SC Associate Justice Romeo Callejo Sr. and reassign by raffle the task of preparing the resolution of the respondent’s motion.
The case involves the mysterious death of eleven alleged members of the Kuratong Baleleng Gang who were killed while under police custody shortly after a dawn raid on their hideout in a Parañaque suburb.
Lacson was initially named as an accessory for allegedly making it appear that the incident was a shootout but was subsequently upgraded to a principal accused shortly after the case was revived by the Arroyo administration.
In a four-page plea filed before the SC en banc, Lacson's lawyer Sigmund Fortun pointed out that Justice Callejo had "found it appropriate to inhibit himself from the case when it was assigned to him by raffle while the case was still pending before the Court of Appeals."
Callejo, at the time a CA magistrate, had explained that he was related to the police officer who conducted an investigation of the Kuratong Baleleng incident before it was referred to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for preliminary investigation.
The CA division which heard the case was presided by Justice Buenaventura Guerrero, with justices Eriberto Rosario and Edgardo Cruz as members.
In oral arguments in July 2001, Justice Cruz announced his voluntary inhibition, prompting justice Josefina Guevarra-Salonga to replace him in the case. An expanded division was constituted in August 2001 with justices Hilarion Aquino and Romeo Callejo Sr. as members.
Callejo, however, expressed his inability to participate in the resolution of the case for reasons of propriety, being an uncle of the Deputy Chief of Intelligence of the Philippine National Police (PNP) who investigated the Kuratong case, prompting the assignment of justice Conrado Vasquez, Jr. to the case.
"If Justice Callejo deemed it proper, just and right to voluntarily inhibit himself when this case was assigned to him when he was still an associate justice of the CA, Justice Callejo should have more reasons now than he first had to voluntarily inhibit himself in this case, especially because this Honorable Court is the last bastion of justice," Fortun said.
The SC case involves the government's motion for reconsideration to the High Court's May 2002 ruling ordering a Quezon City trial judge to determine whether the government’s revival of the Kuratong Baleleng cases fell outside the two-year prescriptive period.
A Quezon City judge, Wenceslao Agnir, subsequently promoted to the CA, had dismissed the cases provisionally in 1999 and swore Lacson in as senator in 2001.
Lacson claims the SC at the time had ruled fairly when it ordered QC Regional Trial Court Judge Theresa Yadao to determine whether a two-year prescriptive period had lapsed when the Department of Justice revived the Kuratong cases in April 2001.
Only 13 justices participated in the final deliberations in the original SC ruling after Associate Justices Antonio Carpio and Jose A.R. Melo inhibited themselves.
The DOJ under former secretary Hernando B. Perez claimed that the two-year prescriptive period should not apply to the Kuratong case and that the offenses charged prescribes only after 20 years. (SUNNEX LUZON)
(April 16, 2003 issue)
Want Sun.Star news on your mobile phone? Click here.
Write letter to the editor. Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here.
|
|
[ return
to top ]
[ home
]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
|
