Wednesday, October 01, 2008 CA ruling on case vs Quirino's grandson appealed
THE family of slain businessman and shipping scion Federico Delgado on Tuesday asked the Supreme Court (SC) to reverse the decision of the Court of Appeals (CA) that dismissed the murder charges against Luisito Gonzales, grandson of the late President Elpidio Quirino.
Gonzales is also the ex-husband of singer Kuh Ledesma. He is the stepbrother of Delgado, son of shipping magnate Francisco Delgado who is more popularly known in the industry as "Don Paco."
Delgado was killed on March 10, 2007 at his Manila apartment. He was 51.
His girlfriend, Analisa Pesico, survived the attack and positively identified Gonzales and his driver Antonio Buenaflor as their assailants.
After several months in absentia, Gonzales appeared only last July after the case was transmitted to the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) for hearing.
In a petition, Delgado's siblings and Pesico asked the high court to nullify the August 29, 2008 amended decision of the CA Former Special Seventh Division that set aside its previous ruling affirming the finding of probable cause by the Department of Justice (DOJ) against Gonzales.
According to petitioners, the CA erred and abused its discretion in rendering an amended decision on the mere basis of a motion for reconsideration filed by Gonzales and Buenaflor and in misappreciating the facts of the case.
By setting aside the findings of the DOJ, petitioners said the CA unjustly interfered with the determination of probable cause as an executive-mandated function belonging to public prosecutors.
"Certainly, the Court of Appeals is bereft of jurisdiction to intrude into the trial court's power when the same had already found probable cause after preliminary investigation," petitioners said through counsels from the Manalo Puno Jocson and Guerzon law offices.
Petitioners pointed out that the appellate court had evidently transgressed the limits of the petition for certiorari that it was tasked to decide, such that even the propriety of the warrants of arrest, which had already been ascertained is now being quashed with no basis in logic and in law.
They said that by going to the Manila RTC to seek the immediate release of the accused and then subsequently moving that the CA amend its judgment by making its order final and executory, "the respondents have created a situation where conflicting rulings by the RTC and CA pitted each court against the other in a manner wholly unsanctioned by law."
Delgado's family said the CA illegally usurped the authority of the RTC to determine probable cause when it nullified the separate determinations of probable cause by the DOJ for filing information and the RTC for issuance of warrants of arrest even as the justice department was never found to have committed grave abuse of discretion and the RTC was never impleaded as a party in the petition.
In the assailed ruling of the CA, Associate Justice Rmedios Salazar-Fernando granted the motion for reconsideration filed by Gonzales and Buenaflor seeking the reversal of the March 18 decision penned by now retired Associate Justice Enrico Lanzanas.
The CA likewise nullified the arrest warrants issued by the Manila court against them.
It said its scrutiny of the evidence led it to the conclusion that there was really insufficient evidence to support the DOJ's findings of probable cause, noting that then acting justice secretary Agnes Devanadera's finding is based solely on the account of Pesico, the prosecution's lone eyewitness.
Devanadera's resolution held that Pesico was able to establish positive identification of Gonzales and Buenaflor as the assailants.
The CA further said that although Pesico claimed to have seen the faces of both assailants, she only managed to give one cartographic sketch, which did not even resemble the facial features of anyone of the petitioners.
The CA, however, gave credence on the affidavits of the 29 medical staff of the Neuro Psychiatric Unit of the Medical Center presented by Gonzales and Buenaflor to prove that it was impossible for him to be at the crime scene considering that he was confined in the said hospital at the time of the killing. (ECV/Sunnex)
