QC court waiting for Pamatong’s bail documents

MANILA, Philippines - The Quezon City court that issued one of the warrants of arrest against lawyer Ely Pamatong has yet to set his arraignment for the inciting to sedition case as it has yet to receive documents concerning his bail.

It was reported on Friday that Pamatong has posted bail on both the inciting to sedition and malicious mischief charges, set at P12,000 and P2,000 respectively, that were filed against him several years ago.

An employee at the QC Metropolitan Trial Court (MTC) Branch 33, which handles the inciting to sedition case, said the former presidential aspirant may have posted bail with the court handling the other charge.

This practice, according to the employee, is permitted by the rules. The judge of the other court will also be the one who will sign the order of release.

But with the move, the Quezon City court is left waiting for the bail-related documents that could allow them to push through with Pamatong’s arraignment on the inciting to sedition charge.

It was not clear where the malicious mischief case against Pamatong was filed, as records of both the Quezon City regional and metropolitan trial courts show that no other case aside from the sedition charges is filed against Pamatong.

Pending for 7 years

The inciting to sedition case, contrary to earlier reports, was filed against Pamatong in 2004 over his statements on live television when he threatened to burn schools in the country if then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo would not step down from office.

Pamatong was declared a nuisance candidate in the 2004 presidential elections.

Based on the transcript of his interview with ABS-CBN, Pamatong said the burning of the schools would be part of the protests that also included the scattering of metal spikes by alleged Pamatong’s supporters in EDSA, also in 2004.

The case was filed in court only in 2006 when assistant city prosecutor Lamberto de Vera reversed the earlier recommendation of dismissal of the case. The reversal was approved by then city prosecutor, and now prosecutor general, Claro Arellano.

The case, however, was “inadvertently” placed among the archived cases of the MTC Branch 33, making it dormant for at least seven years until its discovery in February 2013.

“In the process of encoding all pending cases pursuant to the Electronic Court (E-Court) project of the Supreme Court, it was found out that the record of this case was inadvertently mixed with the archived cases,” read the order of then acting Judge Edward Pacis.

Upon the discovery of the mix-up, Pacis immediately set the arraignment of Pamatong on Feb. 28, 2013, but the respondent failed to appear. The arraignment was reset several times, the latest of which scheduled on July 23, 2013.

At the time, Pacis was already appointed to a different court, with Judge Joel Socrates Lopeña taking over. Pamatong again failed to attend the arraignment due to a supposed conflict in his schedule.

Instead of resetting, however, Lopeña granted the request of the public prosecutor to instead issue a warrant of arrest as the setting has be scheduled “for a long time and that the case has been pending for seven years.”

The judge set the bail at P12,000. He also ordered the case – this time with permission – to be sent to the archives until the respondent’s arrest.

More than a year after the issuance of the warrant, Pamatong was arrested last week by elements of the National Bureau of Investigation at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). He has yet to post bail on the charge filed against him.

Pamatong was arrested days after he was linked to the foiled bombing in NAIA.

His lawyer, Salvador Panelo, said in an earlier report that Pamatong did not advocate any criminal act and merely wanted the government to take a tougher stand in its territorial disputes with China.