Court barred from pursuing Kuratong raps vs Lacson

Sen. Panfilo Lacson avoided arrest yesterday to win the first round of his legal battle against the government which is trying to pin him down on the 1995 alleged summary execution of 11 suspected members of the Kuratong Baleleng robbery gang.

Voting 4-1, the Court of Appeals (CA) special third division stopped Judge Ma. Thelma Yadao of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court from issuing any warrant for the arrest of Lacson and his 37 co-accused, all policemen.

The CA also banned the Department of Justice from pursuing the multiple murder charges against Lacson and the 37 policemen and voided the preliminary investigation that led to the filing of the information in court.

"Clearly, section 8 rule 117 (of the Revised Rules on Criminal Procedure) gives the accused a defense against subsequent revival of cases against him, and this defense may be availed of apart from, and notwithstanding the absence of, the defense of double jeopardy," read the CA’s ruling.

But Justice Undersecretary Manuel Teehankee told reporters the justice department and the Office of the Solicitor General will question the CA ruling before the Supreme Court and seek a motion for reconsideration.

"The question is, can a procedural rule supersede a substantive provision in the Revised Penal Code where victims can seek justice within a 20-year prescriptive period?" he said. "This is with regard to provisional dismissals. But in order for the case to be considered closed, there has to be full consent of the victims. This would amount to dismissal."

In the 23-page decision, Associate Justice Eriberto Rosario, who prepared the draft, said it was "necessary" to issue an injunction against the justice department to protect Lacson’s constitutional rights and stop the government from "persecuting" him.

"Another recognized exception is where the case is one of persecution rather than prosecution," read the ruling.

"Apparently, hints of persecution are manifest in the case of Lacson. For one, Lacson is now charged as a principal–obviously to preclude any opportunity on his part to evade incarceration by seeking bail. Persecution is likewise apparent in the hurried pace at which the investigation was completed."

However, State Prosecutor Peter Ong, who led the three-man panel that conducted the preliminary investigation, said the cases against Lacson and the 37 policemen have not been "revived" but were "re-filed" because the testimonies of police Senior Inspectors Ysmael Yu and Abelardo Ramos, and Senior Police Officer 2 Wilnor Medes could be considered as "new" evidence.

Earlier, Yu told investigators that he was among the policemen who raided the house of Wilson Soronda, suspected leader of the Kuratong Baleleng gang, at Superville Subdivision in Parañaque City on May 17, 1995.

The gangmen were alive when they were arrested, he added.

State prosecutors charged Lacson and the 37 policemen with multiple murder at the Quezon City Regional Trial Court in 1999 but Judge Wenceslao Agnir later dismissed the cases after all but one of the witnesses recanted their statements.

When Agnir was appointed to the CA, Yadao took over and the cases against Lacson and the 37 policemen were re-filed when she was already the judge at Branch 81.

Lacson’s co-accused are: Chief Superintendents Jewel Canson, who is the prospective representative to Congress of the party-list group Mamamayan Ayaw sa Droga (MAD), Romeo Acop and Francisco Zubia; Senior Superintendents Michael Ray Aquino, Cesar Mancao III, Glenn Dumlao; and 31 other police officers.

Apart from Rosario, the CA justices who voted in Lacson’s favor were: Associate Justices Conrado Vasquez Jr., Hilarion Aquino, and Josefina Guevarra-Salonga.

Only Justice Buenaventura Guerrero, chairman of the special 3rd division, dissented.