Law and justice

It’s almost 11 years now but justice has remained elusive for the family of “missing” casino security video operator Edgar Bentain. Until last Tuesday’s privilege speech of Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson, the highly reported “disappearance” of Bentain from the former Silahis Hotel in Roxas Boulevard was only in the realms of suspicions of his being abducted and perhaps killed by whoever wanted him out of the picture.

Old wounds were re-opened, especially among the Bentain family who are still kept in the dark as to what really happened to him. Bentain’s misfortune came after he was tagged as the source of the video where former Vice President Joseph Estrada and his gambling buddy, Charlie “Atong” Ang were caught playing high-stakes baccarat sometime in 1996.

It was a cruel joke inflicted upon the Bentain family when they were made to believe that Lacson would finally reveal what he knew about the disappearance of their “missing” loved one. But the “new information” Lacson brought out was the same public knowledge that Bentain was “snatched from a hotel somewhere in Roxas Boulevard.” From his own investigations 10 years later, Lacson claimed learning that Bentain was subsequently “killed somewhere in Laguna.”

After his second privilege speech targeting yet deposed President Estrada, Lacson’s very little value added information to unravel the mysterious “disappearance” of Bentain only worsened the grief of his brothers Edcel and Ediver and Edgar’s now 13-year old son. It became too obvious for the Bentain family that they were used by Lacson’s grudge fight against his former Commander-in-Chief.

Lacson pointed to an unnamed then active police officer who supposedly went to report to a “resident of Polk Street” after Bentain’s disappearance. It was an oblique reference to Estrada who lives at No. 1 Polk St. in North Greenhills, San Juan City. “That’s all folks,” punned a Senate kibitzer at the end of Lacson’s latest tirades against Estrada.

The Bentain family are not the only ones in search for justice through the years. The other cases involving common people do not get as much publicity, whether they are rich or poor. But they, too, cry for justice for their loved ones who fell victims of heinous crimes while perpetrators remain free because the long arms of the law have not caught up with them yet. And while some do get caught, they get out of the bind some way, somehow.

This is the public perception now taking shape in the latest developments on the grisly murder of Federico Delgado on March 10, 2007. The victim was a scion of the Delbros that owns other family businesses in real estate and brokerage. It should have been an open-and-shut case because there was a witness in the crime, Annalisa Pesico who herself was almost killed but survived the attack. The witness/victim positively identified the suspected perpetrators, Luisito Gonzales and Antonio Buenaflor. Gonzales was the grandson of the late President Elpidio Quirino.

From the start, this case took very unusual twists and turns since the criminal information was filed against the two accused, one of whom even happens to be a “Quirino,” an equally well-heeled family. Thus, this case hogged media attention and interest because of the principal characters involved.

At the very beginning, the murder victim’s family nearly got their case thrown at the level of the city fiscal who ruled no probable cause against the accused despite an eyewitness account. The fiscal gave more weight to the “alibi” of the accused based on the 20 or so affidavits by witnesses attesting that Quirino was at that time undergoing drug rehabilitation at the basement of the Makati Medical Center during the time of the crime.

Naturally, the fiscal’s ruling came under review by his superiors after the lawyer of the Delgados appealed before the office of the Department of Justice. At that time, former Solicitor-General (Sol-gen) Agnes Devanadera was the “acting” DOJ Secretary.

A staunch defender of justice for victims of heinous crimes, Devanadera overruled the fiscal and reinstated the murder case against the accused. 

The defense lawyers did the most logical legal move for their client and brought the DOJ ruling before the Court of Appeals. The CA initially affirmed the DOJ ruling. But wonders of wonder! The CA reversed its previous ruling and subsequently came up with an “amended” decision in favor of the motion for reconsideration (MR) filed by the defense panel. Upon the petition of the defense, the CA ordered that the accused — being held in detention at the National Bureau of Investigation, be freed.

So, again the Delgado family, through their private counsel, elevated the case to the Supreme Court (SC), as the country’s court of last resort. But somewhere along the way, the office of the Solgen, for reasons we are not aware of, failed to submit on time its supporting petition in favor of the victim’s case. Due to this technicality, the SC handed down its ruling that upheld the CA’s “amended” decision.

But the Delgado family, undaunted by this latest setback on their case, is not losing hope. Through their counsel, they appealed and filed MR relying on jurisprudence and time-honored judicial tradition to relax on technicalities in the search for justice. 

Hence, the case resurfaced again and was reported in media after the latest SC ruling that may spell the doom of this murder case from ever coming into trial. What is perplexing in this case is the fact that this case has yet to get off the ground at the Manila Regional Trial Court and another case filed at the Manila Metropolitan Trial Court Circuit but it had already reached the CA all the way to the SC.

But while the MR of the Delgado family is still pending at the SC, the defense panel has been making obvious efforts to press the release from detention of their client. And this certainly worries the Delgados. Fortunately, however, the RTC judge is not swayed one way or the other, to release the accused until the SC renders its final ruling on the MR of the Delgado family.

No one is above the law. However, law and justice are two different things. Dura lex, sed lex. (The law is harsh but it’s the law.) While laws are supposedly applied, they do not necessarily bring justice, especially for victims of heinous crimes like these.