CA: Ex-poll exec can’t testify in DOJ’s state witness plea

MANILA, Philippines - The Court of Appeals (CA) has ruled that a former elections supervisor linked to the anomalies in the 2007 polls should not be compelled to testify in the Department of Justice (DOJ) bid to turn her into a state witness.

In an eight-page decision released this week, the CA’s Special First Division “partially granted” a petition filed by former Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr. to nullify an order by a Pasay court giving due course to the DOJ motion to discharge lawyer Lilian Suan-Radam and turn her into a state witness.

On May 24, 2012, Pasay Regional Trial Court Branch 117 Judge Eugenio dela Cruz decided not to dismiss outright the motion filed by the DOJ and instead required Radam to testify while she was still one of the accused in the poll sabotage case.

The CA said there is no need for Radam to testify. “What it simply needed is the presentation of the sworn statement of the accused concerned,” the CA said.

They also warned that Radam should not yet be allowed to testify on the case because it might incriminate her before she is legally discharged as a state witness.

The CA added that “her testimony will constitute an admission of her guilt and which, incidentally, under Rule 130, Section 30 of the Rules of Court is still inadmissible as evidence against a co-conspirator until the conspiracy is established by other evidence other than said declaration.”

Among the respondents in the case are Abalos, former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr., and former Maguindanao provincial poll supervisor Lintang Bedol.

Radam and another former poll supervisor, Yogi Martirizar, are also respondents in the case filed by the Comelec. Radam was South Cotabato’s poll supervisor while Martirizar supervised North Cotabato in the 2007 elections.

The DOJ, in April 2012, said the statements of Radam and Martirizar – said to have direct knowledge of the alleged poll irregularities – will strengthen the case against Abalos, who has denied the allegations.