Kuratong case not over — GMA

A day after announcing her renewed bid to achieve "principled reconciliation" with her critics, President Arroyo vowed yesterday to respect the court decision on the Kuratong Baleleng case involving presidential aspirant Sen. Panfilo Lacson.

But the President quickly added that the judicial process is not yet over and government lawyers can still avail themselves of legal remedies to achieve justice in the eight-year-old multiple murder case.

"On the dismissal (of) the lower court of the Kuratong Baleleng case, I have said time and again (that) we must abide by the rule of law," the President told students and teachers of De La Salle University in Dasmariñas, Cavite.

"(But) there is a process by which parties will have to deal with the situation and we have to patiently go through it," she said.

Mrs. Arroyo made the remark the day after a Quezon City regional trial court dismissed the charge that Lacson and 33 other police officers conspired to kill 11 suspected members of the Kuratong Baleleng criminal gang on Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City on May 18, 1995.

Judge Ma. Theresa Yadao dismissed the case without arraignment and trial on the grounds that there was no probable cause to file the multiple murder charge and that prosecutors abused their discretion in filing the case.

But government lawyers said they will appeal and private prosecutors said they will present to the public their witnesses against Lacson and his co-accused even as they questioned the impartiality of Yadao.

"We dare anybody to cite us for contempt as long as the public will know what happened on May 18, 1995," said private prosecutor Arno Sanidad.

"Within the next few days, we’ll present entirely new witnesses. The public doesn’t know about the new witnesses who volunteered to testify. They were just waiting for the trial which never happened," Sanidad said.

"The problem here is that Yadao does not want a trial and that’s what Lacson wants. What evidence do Lacson and Yadao not want to come out?" Sanidad asked.

"You’ll be surprised who these witnesses are. These are the people they’re afraid to come out," he added.

Sanidad criticized Yadao’s decision, saying that Lacson and his co-accused admitted killing the 11 victims in a supposed shootout on Commonwealth Avenue.

But autopsies conducted on the victims showed that they had no powder burns.

"The admission that they killed the 11 victims is the probable cause," Sanidad said. "The 11 victims had no powder burns but all were shot in the head. Based on this, there’s more than probable cause."

The lawyer said Yadao’s dismissal is a "blessing in disguise" because the judge committed the same mistake another Quezon City RTC judge committed in 1999 when he dismissed the case without arraignment and trial.

Another private prosecutor, Efren Moncupa, said they will appeal Yadao’s ruling and stressed that the judge questioned the credibility of the witnesses when there was not even an arraignment.

"We’ll file a motion for reconsideration but we wouldn’t like her to rule on it. She made the conclusion on the credibility of the witnesses so we’ll file a motion to inhibit her. We want a more impartial judge," Moncupa said.

But Lacson’spokesman Rufus Rodriguez said the testimony of the three policemen whom prosecutors presented as new witnesses has been discredited because of "irreconcilable flaws."

He said the testimonies of Senior Inspector Abelardo Ramos, Inspector Ismael Yu and Senior Police Officer 1 Wilmor Medes could not stand legal scrutiny.

Rodriguez said Ramos perjured himself when he claimed to have been part of the actual operation that led to the alleged rubout.

Yu, on the other hand, was only allegedly being used by a former top police official who wanted revenge against Lacson. Two of Yu’s subordinates allegedly claimed that Yu tried to persuade them to testify against Lacson, Rodriguez said.

The lawyer also assailed the integrity of Medes, whom he said "has been allegedly involved in some illegal activities" and was supposedly reported to have been arrested for driving a stolen vehicle last June. — With Jose Rodel Clapano