Friday, June 27, 2008 Prosecution seeks resumption of Leviste trial
SENIOR State Prosecutor Emmanuel Velasco, the chief prosecutor in the murder case of former Batangas governor Jose Antonio Leviste, said the Department of Justice (DOJ) should still be given the opportunity to present more witnesses to indict the accused.
Velasco hoped that Judge Elmo Alameda of the Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 150 will reverse his order terminating the prosecution panel's presentation of rebuttal evidence as result of his failure to attend Wednesday's hearing.
"There was no delay, just a pure and simple mistake. Another and not the least, the state cannot be deprived of its right to prove its case versus criminals like Leviste," Velasco said.
In filing an urgent motion for reconsideration Thursday morning, the prosecutor believed that Alameda will hear his "very reasonable" explanation of his failure to attend the past proceedings.
In open court, Alameda granted the request of Leviste's lawyers led by Henry Capela to end the DOJ panel's presentation of additional witnesses, effectively cutting short the one-and-a-half-year long trial of the murder case filed against the former governor.
Leviste shot to death his aide Rafael De Las Alas on January 12, 2007 inside his office at the LPL Towers in Legaspi Village, Makati City for which he was charged with murder despite his insistence that he merely acted in self-defense.
Alameda said the DOJ prosecution panel has waived its right to present rebuttal witnesses after the entire team of Velasco did not make it in the hearing despite proper notice.
But Velasco reasoned out that he thought the hearing was in the afternoon.
"As proof of good faith and readiness of the undersigned Prosecutor to attend the June 25, 2008 hearing at 2 p.m., he even called up this Honorable Court the day before to inquire if the June 25, 2008 hearing will push through as scheduled for which query he got a positive answer, albeit without specifying that the hearing would be in the morning instead of in the afternoon," Velasco's motion explained.
The DOJ prosecutor said he even immediately called up the clerk of court that Wednesday morning when he learned that the hearing was about to start and told Leviste's lawyers Capela and Carlo Villaruz that his planner noted that the hearings were scheduled in the afternoon and not in the morning.
Explaining that he was still in Cavite that time, Velasco said it was the defense lawyers who had requested that the hearing on Wednesday, including the rest of the proceedings for the month of July, be scheduled in the afternoon.
"There was only a miscommunication, we know all the hearings were reset to afternoons as requested by the defense so we did not go to the court Wednesday morning because of this," he said adding that "there was no capricious delay," in their non-appearance.
He further explained that his absence was just a minor delay and did not violate Leviste's right to a speedy trial.
The DOJ was supposed to present on Wednesday a security guard at the LPL Towers who was on duty when the killing of de Las Alas happened. The security guard, according to Velasco, would contradict Leviste's testimony that the victim arrived at the office at 9 a.m. that day.
"If the accused has nothing to hide, then it must let the remaining rebuttal witnesses to testify. It bears to stress here that the prosecution is duty bound to present several rebuttal witnesses merely because the defense presented several witnesses with questionable testimonies," Velasco said in his motion. (AH/Sunnex)
