Abra residents bewail courtroom break-in

Bangued, Abra , Philippines  – The break-in of a regional trial court here midnight Wednesday is casting huge doubts on the wheels of justice to grind aside from dealing a lethal blow to the government’s fight against criminality and private armies in the province, once touted as the “killing fields” in the Cordilleras.

Abra folk are expressing hopelessness that justice could still be attained with lost pieces of evidence, said Marites Benas, a government employee assigned at the government-run Philippine Information Agency. “People express fears that justice will all the more become an illusion than a possibility.”

The “attack” even occured at the heels of the visit of Chief Justice Reynato Puno in mid-May here for the Abra leg of the“Justice On Wheels” of the Supreme Court.

Carting away practically all firearms the court have been keeping as evidence to punish criminals and pin down the unending poll-related violence in the province, still unidentified men managed to break into the Regional Trial Court Branch 2, a stone-throw away from the Abra provincial capitol.

Abra police director Senior Superintendent Ernest Gaab who begged off to further provide details apparently not to muddle the ongoing probe confirmed the break-in. He vowed they already have a suspect.

Initially though, Gaab said, an M79 grenade launcher, two M14 automatic rifles and still undetermined pistols and revolvers were taken. 

Case investigator Senior Police Officer 4 Leo Villano, of the Bangued police said the rascals broke into the sala of a judge through a sliding window beside the road.

Newly designated Cordillera police director Chief Superintendent Villamor Bumanglag who only took the Cordillera police’s command a week before the break-in said there is no showing that there was a forcible entry, hinting their probe is eyeing “inside job.”

Probers said two security guards from the Panther Security System, Jerson Claor of Barangay Poblacion, Dolores and Bernie Tullas from Barangay Banglolaw, Bucay town were manning the Justice Hall.

Bumanglag believed the perpetrators wanted the evidences “destroyed” so that all cases related to these firearms are “quashed.”

Perhaps the most daring “attack” on the judicial system in Abra, the incident renders the biggest blow to government’s prosecution to private armed groups and crimes in the province as well as lethal blows on confidence of Abreños on the judicial grind in the province.