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Monday, May 12, 2003
State lawyers ask SC to junk Lacson appeal
By Benjamin B. Pulta
GOVERNMENT lawyers have asked the Supreme Court (SC) to dismiss the appeal filed by opposition lawmaker Panfilo M. Lacson in connection with the reopening of the Kuratong Baleleng rubout case.
In a 28-page comment, Solicitor General Alfredo Benipayo said the motion for reconsideration filed by Lacson's lawyers last April 15, 2003 should be "denied for lack of merit."
"Surely, respondent (Lacson) also could not claim that he was denied or is being denied due process. He was afforded the opportunity to participate in the preliminary investigation that was conducted by public prosecutors, yet he chose not to submit his counter-affidavit and other countervailing evidence," Benipayo said apparently referring to the proceedings initiated by the Department of Justice (DOJ) under former Sec. Hernando B. Perez.
"A party who chooses not to avail of the opportunity to answer the charges cannot complain of a denial of due process," Benipayo said in his pleading.
Benipayo said the state should now be given the chance to proceed with the prosecution of the May 18, 1995 killings, which resulted in the deaths of 11 suspected members of the Kuratong Baleleng gang.
In underscoring the need to reopen the case, Benipayo cited once more the sworn statements of Inspectors Abelardo Ramos and Ismael Yu in their affidavits executed on March 24, 2001, wherein the two stated that the May 17, 1995 operation at Superville Subdivision, Parañaque resulted in the apprehension of Kuratong Baleleng Gang members alive.
"Such killing belies the claim that the aforesaid persons died from a shootout and a legitimate police operation. This contrived defense, which is a claim of self defense, significantly means that those who conspired in the treacherous killing of the Kuratong Baleleng members are deemed to have admitted the commission of a criminal act," Benipayo said.
"The burden of evidence then shifts to the killers, who must show by clear and convincing proof that they indeed acted in self-defense," Benipayo added.
Lacson's lawyers, Philip Sigfrid A. Fortun, Gilbert V. Santos and Floresita C. Gan, earlier asked the SC to take a second look at its decision which gave the green light for the prosecution of lawmaker and opposition presidential candidate Panfilo M. Lacson before the Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 81.
The case involves the death of eleven suspected members of the Kuratong Baleleng gang who were shot and killed while under police custody shortly after a raid on their safehouse in Superville Subdivision in Parañaque.
In a 29-page resolution penned by Associate Justice Romeo J. Callejo Sr., the SC en banc, voting 10-4-1, had set aside its earlier ruling and ordered the Quezon City’s RTC Br. 81 to proceed with the multiple murder cases docketed as Criminal Cases Nos. Q-99-81679 to Q-99-81689.
A ruling by the SC en banc earlier turned down Lacson's lawyers’ plea for Callejo to inhibit himself in the proceedings.
"In sum, this Court finds the motion for reconsideration of petitioners (DOJ) meritorious," Callejo said in the ruling in favor of the justice department and against Lacson.
The resolution also reversed an earlier decision dated August 21, 2001 of the Court of Appeals (CA) on the matter that dismissed for being “moot and academic" the motion to dismiss filed by Lacson's lawyers before the Quezon City RTC. The resolution also directed the lower court to proceed "with deliberate dispatch" on the cases.
Four magistrates, namely, Consuelo Ynares-Santiago, Angelina Sandoval-Gutierrez, Jose C. Vitug and Reynato S. Puno, dissented from the majority opinion.
Siding with Callejo, on the other hand, were Associate Justices Adolfo S. Azcuna, Renato C. Corona, Conchita Carpio-Morales, Ma. Alicia Austria-Martinez, Artemio Panganiban, Leonardo A. Quisumbing, Vicente V. Mendoza, Josue Bellosillo and Chief Justice Hilario G. Davide, Jr.
A lone magistrate, Antonio T. Carpio, took no part in the proceedings.
Last March 20, Lacson's lawyers asked Callejo to inhibit himself in the proceedings in the case, pointing out that SC Associate Justice Romeo Callejo Sr. 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."
Lacson was initially named as an accessory for allegedly making it appear 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, Fortun had said Callejo, at the time a CA magistrate, in deciding to inhibit himself from the case explained that he was related to the police officer who conducted an investigation of the Kuratong Baleleng incident before it was referred to the 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. This prompted 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, who was 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 RTC Judge Theresa Yadao to determine whether a two-year prescriptive period had elapsed 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 Perez claimed the two-year prescriptive period should not apply to the Kuratong case, and added the offenses charged prescribe only after 20 years.
(May 11, 2003 issue)
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