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.
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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.