Prosecution blocks release of Manila Today editor Salem despite dismissal of charges
MANILA, Philippines — A week since a Mandaluyong court junked the criminal cases against journalist Lady Ann Salem and she has yet to walk free, as the prosecution blocked their release saying the ruling is not final yet.
Salem’s counsels from the Public Interest Law Center are pressing the Mandaluyong Regional Trial Court Branch 209 to issue a release order for the journalist after the prosecution moved to block it despite the dismissal of the charge.
Mandaluyong RTC 209 Presiding Judge Monique Quisumbing-Ignacio on February 5 dismissed the illegal possession of firearms and of explosives cases against Salem and labor organizer Rodrigo Esparago. The court in the same ruling declared the search warrants that was implemented, and led to their arrest, as void.
The PILC then filed an urgent motion for her release, but Senior Associate City Prosecutor Queruben Garcia moved to block it.
In a two-page Comment, Garcia said the order of dismissal has yet to attain finality and they will seek relief. “Sans conclusiveness, the Order dismissing the charges against Accused Salem remain subject to reconsideration or appeal, rendering improper her plea for immediate release,” he added.
READ: 'Human Rights Day 7' had no use for guns or grenades, family and friends say
Defense: Order is tantamount to acquittal
In a Reply filed Thursday, the PILC asserted that the dismissal of the case, after the court had quashed the search warrant and declaration that evidence is inadmissible, is tantamount to acquittal.
“Our rules on criminal proceedings require that a judgment of acquittal, whether ordered by the trial or the appellate court, is final, unappeasable, and immediately executory. The defense invokes the finality-of-acquittal rule,” their pleading made public Friday read.
The defense noted that the Constitution allows the quashal of a search warrant as protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, and they invoked this protection in their Joint Omnibus Motion which was eventually granted.
The court in the February 5 ruling held that there were “substantial inconsistencies and contradictions” in the application of the search warrant.
“It is readily apparent that the Honorable Court based its decision-making on a holistic approach to evidentiary matters,” the lawyers said, adding that the court had declared the inadmissibility of the evidence, which means there are no more evidence to support the charges.
“Indubitably, the decision of the judge is an evidentiary ruling and not just interlocutory,” they said.
The PILC argued that when the court ordered the dismissal of the charges, it effectively terminated the case. “[T]he Order of the Honorable Court passed upon evidentiary issues, and concluded that none of the evidence submitted in the indictment are admissible as evidence,” they added.
Double jeopardy
The PILC also said that since the case was dismissed, it “conclusively confirmed the innocence of the accused, thus placing them within the ambit of the rule of double jeopardy.”
The Constitution prohibits that a person be put in jeopardy of punishment for the same offense. Double jeopardy means having the accused answer twice for the same offense.
Following this policy, an appeal by the prosecution in a criminal case is not available, the defense said. “Appealing the Order dated Feb. 5, 2021 will place the accused in double jeopardy because it will open her again to trial, to a reconsideration of facts and evidence, when there has been an evidentiary ruling, one that has adjudicated on the merits of the cases,” they added.
“Accused has already been needlessly aggrieved and molested, if not permanently stigmatized, by the unproved charges. She thus reiterates the prayer for the immediate issuance of a release order by this Honorable Court,” they added.
Salem and Esparago and five other activists were arrested on December 10, as the world commemorated International Human Rights Day. They were arrested also as law enforcers implemented the search warrants that Judge Villavert issued, based on the same surveillance records.
The “HRDay 7” are among the latest of activists jailed over the same charge of illegal possession of firearms and explosives. Rights alliance group Karapatan had earlier said that more than 400 political prisoners arrested under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte are accused of the same charges.
Dennis Denora, a Sun.Star reporter and publisher of the Trends and Times community paper, has been shot dead by unidentified killers, according to the Davao chapter of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines.
Denora was killed near the wet market of Panabo City in Davao Del Norte on Thursday afternoon, NUJP Davao says.
The Davao del Norte Press & Radio-TV Club says in a statement that is is angered and saddened by news of the killing.
"His death awakens the anger and pains of journalists who do their job and yet are being judged by the pistol," the group also says.
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines reports four student journalists of The Democrat, student publication of University of Nueva Caceres were intimidated and subjected to surveillance by members of the Philippine Army.
"The other soldiers took their photos without consent. Democrat editor-in-chief Aila Joy Esperida protested, and told the soldiers to delete the photos. She also asked for the identity of the soldier asking for their personal data. The soldier introduced himself as Sergeant Creo," NUJP says.
It adds that students were asked what they were doing at the plaza and claimed that they will be holidng a rally. NUJP says Creo went to say "that activists are often recruited to the New People's Army."
"The following day, Esperida received a letter signed by their barangay captain summoning her and her parents for a dialogue with the Philippine Army on Sept. 24. On Sept. 23, The Democrat photojournalist John Harvee Cabal also received a similar letter from their barangay," NUJP reports.
A Mexican journalist was shot to death in a store parking lot on Saturday in the southern tourist town of Acapulco, regional authorities said, in the country's second journalist killing in a week.
Prosecutors said they have opened an investigation for homicide with a firearm in the killing of Nelson Matus, days after the body of fellow journalist Luis Martin Sanchez was found "with signs of violence" after he had been reported missing. — AFP
A regional correspondent for leading Mexican newspaper La Jornada was found dead on Saturday, a day after he went missing in the western state of Nayarit, the daily said.
"A body found in the village of Huachines... in the municipality of Tepic was identified as Luis Martin Sanchez Iniguez, 59 years old, correspondent for La Jornada," the Mexico City newspaper said on its website.
The journalist's wife, Cecilia Lopez, told investigators that she had been unaware of his whereabouts since Wednesday night, when she was in another town visiting relatives, the newspaper reported, citing local authorities.
Sanchez Iniguez's body was found on Saturday morning in a rural area near Tepic, the capital of Nayarit. Some unconfirmed local media reports said he was found wrapped in plastic bags and had a message on his chest.
Sanchez was at home Wednesday night and spoke to his wife on the phone. — AFP
A respected South African investigative journalism organisation has won a legal battle against a powerful businessman in a case that tested the country's media freedom.
The amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism had earlier been barred from using documents acquired from a source in its reporting on controversial businessman Zunaid Moti -- who claimed they were stolen.
But High Court Judge Roland Sutherland on Monday set aside that order, describing it as "an abuse of the process of court". — AFP
The amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism draws its name from the Zulu word for dung beetle -- a diligent species that fulfils a crucial role.
The tiny South African non-profit specialises in delving into political corruption -- "digging dung and fertilizing democracy," its editor-in-chief, Sam Sole, said with a chuckle in a recent interview with AFP.
Sole, a lean and bearded 61-year-old, has had little opportunity for laughter of late.
His organisation has been running a lengthy investigation into a powerful businessman accused of unscrupulous business dealings, including with President Emmerson Mnangagwa of neighbouring Zimbabwe.
The probe has unleashed a legal and financial headache for the centre as it faces a full-throated challenge from Zunaid Moti, the tycoon in question.
The case reaches a key stage on Tuesday when the High Court will hear Moti's objections that the investigation is based on stolen documents which should be handed over.
The outcome has huge importance for whistleblowers who until now have been largely shielded from identification by the law. — AFP
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