NBI exec asks DOJ to deny Gatdula bid to transfer case

MANILA, Philippines - National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) deputy director for technical services Reynaldo Esmeralda yesterday asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) to deny former NBI director Magtanggol Gatdula’s petition to transfer the venue of the hearing of his ambush case to other courts.

Gatdula raised the issue of due process and the interest of justice as grounds for the change of venue.

Esmeralda, in his six-page comment, said Gatdula implied that due to the publicity linking his name to a kidnapping case, he could no longer establish his innocence before the DOJ, considering that Justice Secretary Leila de Lima had already implicated him in the case.

He said it is wrong for Gatdula to seek a change of venue due to unnecessary publicity of the case.

He said in the case of People of the Philippines vs. Teehankee, the Supreme Court (SC) held that pervasive publicity is not prejudicial to the right of an accused to fair trial.

“The mere fact that the trial of the appellant was given a day-to-day, gavel-to-gavel coverage does not by itself prove that the publicity so permeated the mind of the trial judge and impaired his impartiality,” the SC said.

The SC, said Esmeralda, further ruled that publicizing the case even enhances an accused’s right to a fair trial “since a responsible press is a handmaiden of effective judicial administration, especially in the criminal field.”

He said the press does not simply publish information about trials but guards against the miscarriage of justice by subjecting the police, prosecutors and judicial processes to extensive public scrutiny and criticism.

On Gatdula’s request to extend the filing of his counter-affidavit to 15 days, Esmeralda said it should be denied because it is merely a dilatory tactic.