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Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Justice office takes 2 fiscals off Arbet case
CEBU CITY -- Two members of the panel of prosecutors handling the Yongco murder case were removed after a lawyers' group sought their inhibition.
It's the latest twist in the case that saw lawyers arguing over whether the suspect was deemed under arrest, and later singing along with the suspect after the fight was settled.
President Arroyo also came into the picture after women's groups sought her assistance, after the police and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) clashed over whom to pin down for the killing of lawyer Arbet Sta. Ana-Yongco.
It cost Reynaldo Esmeralda his post as NBI 7 director over conflicting findings of the agency and the local police.
Now, two prosecutors are out.
In an interview Monday, Justice Raul Gonzalez said he relieved Cebu City Prosecutor Cezar Tajan-langit and Assistant City Prosecutor Oscar Capacio after the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) filed a motion for inhibition against the two government lawyers.
Tajanlangit, Capacio and Manila-based State Prosecutor Nolibien Qui-ambao comprise the panel tasked to investigate the murder complaint filed against Michel Favila Sr.
IBP Cebu City chapter president Democrito Bar-cenas told Sun.Star that Tajanlangit and Capacio have shown manifest bias for Favila, the suspected gunman in the Oct. 11 killing.
Less than 24 hours
Barcenas said it took the two prosecutors less than 24 hours to approve Favila's motion for a clarificatory hearing, while their motion to terminate the inquest proceeding and to immediately bring the case to court has not yet been acted upon.
The motion was filed last Nov. 8.
Tajanlangit, in a separate interview, said that relieving him from the panel "would make my day."
He said he had always been hoping from the time the complaint was filed with their office that he will be taken off the panel.
"But if I am allowed to continue, I'll dispose of the case with the veteran's panache of sinking my teeth into it with gusto and an appetite for more," Tajanlangit said.
He had earlier sought relief from the Yongco murder case, but the justice secretary told him to stay and prove his worth.
Gonzalez said he still has to choose two prosecutors who will replace Tajanlangit and Capacio in the panel.
Quiambao will now head the new panel of investigators tasked to resolve the murder complaint.
"The relief order was only to respond to the complainant's request. It does not mean that they have any derogatory records that would merit their relief," Gonzalez said.
Tajanlangit, however, said that he has not yet received the relief order.
He added that the request for inhibition and his relief are "reflective of the story of the monkey and the turtle," which is about deception and wit.
He refused to elaborate on his statement.
Meanwhile, the five private prosecutors handling the murder complaint asked the Cebu City Prosecutor's Office to immediately charge Favila before the Regional Trial Courts.
"The private complainant can never expect a fair and partial investigation to come from Hon. Cezar Tajanlangit as a member of the panel. It is just right and fair that he, together with Hon. Oscar Capacio should inhibit themselves as members of the panel," the omnibus motion read.
The lawyers also asked for reconsideration of the order granting Favila a clarificatory hearing.
They implied that complainant Filemon Yongco, Arbet's husband, was denied his right to oppose the motion for the holding of a hearing.
Fair probe
In the 13-page motion submitted Monday, the private prosecutors pointed out that given Tajanlangit's role in the filing of a murder case against Cedrick Devinadera and his granting of a motion for clarificatory hearing without acting on the prosecution's motion to file the case, they can no longer expect a fair investigation by the current panel.
Tajanlangit, they said, is the same prosecutor who allowed the filing of a case against Devinadera "despite his personal, common and public knowledge of a pending parricide case against Ruben Ecleo Jr. as the accused in the death of Alona Bacolod-Ecleo."
Yongco was the private prosecutor in the parricide case against former mayor Ruben Ecleo Jr. She was shot dead in her office on Alcohol and Sikatuna Sts., Cebu City last Oct. 11.
Favila, 49, a resident of Barangay Talaga, Caga-yancillo, Palawan, was identified as the gunman.
He is an officer of the Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association, which Ecleo heads.
The private prosecutors in the Yongco murder complaint are Barcenas, Manuel Monzon, Liza Corro, Thelma Jordan and Geraldine Jorda.
They alleged that the order granting Favila's motion was signed only by Tajanlangit, negating the fact that as a panel, decisions must be unanimous and not just made by one.
Impropriety
"Prosecutor Nolibien Quiambao was made a member of the panel precisely to take part in the proceeding and to forestall any possibility of impropriety on the part of the prosecuting body. But why is his signature not on the subpoena as in the other order? The purpose for the creation of the panel and the assignment of Quiambao is put to naught," the omnibus motion also read.
Barcenas also said in an interview that the panel "indiscriminately issued" subpoenas to just anyone, including those who have nothing to do with the case.
"Why would they issue subpoena to National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agents when we did not submit any evidence from the NBI. Clarificatory hearings should be based on affidavits submitted," Barcenas said.
Favila had asked the City Prosecutor's Office to clear him of the charge he killed Yongco.
He cited "material contradictions and irreconcilable inconsistencies" in the testimonies of witnesses of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group 7. (GN/GAN/With GC)
(November 23, 2004 issue)
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