Tuesday, August 03, 2004 DOJ official to IBP: Sue fiscals over Ecleo case
CEBU CITY -- The justice department has asked the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Cebu City chapter to file a complaint against the government prosecutors involved in the Cedrick Devinadera controversy.
State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuņo's letter, discussed during the IBP chapter's regular board meeting late last week but which has remained unresolved, came days after Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Leopoldo Caņete voided the conviction of Devinadera.
Caņete said RTC Judge Ildefonso Suerte no longer had legal authority when he resolved the Devinadera case and convicted the accused after pleading guilty, citing Supreme Court Administrative Order 36-2004 dated March 3, 2004.
Devinadera had confessed to having participated in the killing of Alona Bacolod-Ecleo, wife of Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association (PBMA) leader Ruben Ecleo Jr., in January 2002.
"The judgment rendered by Judge Suerte, being void, is no judgment at all. Said void decision is deemed non-existent. It cannot be the source of right nor of any obligation. All acts performed pursuant to it and all claims emanating from it have no legal effect," Caņete said.
He ordered that the Devinadera case be remanded to the Office of the Provincial Prosecutor where, "in coordination" with the Office of the Cebu City Prosecutor, it will be reviewed again.
In an interview Monday, Gloria Lastimosa-Dalawampu, a member if the IBP Cebu City chapter board, said the proverbial jury is still out on what to do with Zuņo's letter, adding, though, that the chapter is already content with just winning the Devinadera case.
"The ball is with the Office of the Provincial Prosecutor. If they comply with the order, then the IBP will no longer have anything to do with the case. But if they refuse to comply and contest the order, then the IBP will be forced to continue with what it is doing," she said.
She said the Devinadera case is still deemed pending, although currently remanded to the justice department for review.
Until it is dismissed or somehow merged with the main Ecleo case in Cebu City, it remains a threat to the successful prosecution of the case filed by the Bacolod siblings, the party the IBP represents.
Niņo Bacolod, a brother of Alona, said he was pleased with Caņete's decision. "Now we can concentrate on the parricide case against Ecleo," he said in a phone interview Monday.
Dalawampu said she, being the assigned counsel to the Bacolod siblings, has been directed to submit a written recommendation to the IBP chapter's board.
Chapter president Democrito Barcenas is also penning his own recommendations.
"I'd like the DOJ (Department of Justice) to conduct an investigation, if only to determine who's guilty and who's not. Surely, the government prosecutors involved in the case themselves don't want this controversy perpetually hanging over their heads. They would want it resolved," Dalawampu said.
"But as to whether the IBP should file a formal complaint, I'm not sure it's necessary. The IBP is involved in the case because of its free legal assistance service. The DOJ can conduct an administrative investigation on its own," she added.
In his seven-page ruling, Caņete said the Devinadera case and that of Ecleo are intertwined because it involved one victim: Alona.
Citing the court's "inherent power to correct itself," he ordered Suerte's judgment of conviction set aside and vacated and for the case to be returned to where it came from.
Provincial Prosecutor Napoleon Alburo, one of the government prosecutors said to have been involved in the Devinadera case, said in a previous interview that he wasn't involved in the prosecution of the case. He had said that while it was raffled off to his assigned court in Barili town, private lawyers representing both camps handled the trial.
Assistant Regional State Prosecutor Vicente Maņalac, also in an earlier interview, said he was only discharging his official function when he resolved to file the Devinadera case before the RTC. KNR/With GAN
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