From the heart, a cry: a just peace for all!

"Truly it is so disheartening to hear instances about atrocities committed, inflicting pain and sufferings to human beings, more compellingly so, of those perpetrated by Filipinos against fellow Filipinos. And this is not to mention ordeals the families of the victims had to endure as a result thereof.

“This Court would not venture to analyze, reconcile or even discuss the conflicting ideological principles that precipitate hostilities between the government and the rebel movement. But this is just to manifest its sincere and ardent wish that their respective leaders will endeavor to go back to the negotiating table and eventually forge a long-lasting peace agreement that will be mutually beneficial to them.”

Thus states, in part, the conclusion of the 97-page court order, issued last Dec. 16, by Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 32 presiding Judge Thelma Bunyi-Medina, dismissing 15 murder charges against 15 accused, including me. There were originally 60-plus accused. The case took 14 years to resolve – seven years at the Supreme Court, seven years of RTC hearings on the prosecution’s presentation of evidence.

Like a double breath of fresh air, the court’s ruling and its appeal for the resumption of formal peace negotiations between the Philippine government and the National Democratic Front have been welcomed by peace advocates, the accused and their lawyers and supporters.

In sum, the court granted the four demurrers to evidence separately filed by eight of the accused. These are pleadings for the dismissal of the charges on the ground that the prosecution failed to prove their accusations.

Dismissed were 15 counts of murder against the 15 movants, as well as charges against seven other co-accused.

In resolving the demurrers to evidence, the court said it had to “evenly balance the constitutional rights of the accused, on the one hand, and the interest of the state, on the other.”

Necessarily, the court explained, it had to keep in mind its “sworn duty to uphold the law and decide the case based on the testimonies of the prosecution witnesses and the pieces of evidence they presented and correlate them with the existing rules and jurisprudence.”

Citing seven SC decisions relevant to the points raised in each demurrer and the prosecution’s comments on them, Judge Bunyi-Medina declares that the prosecution “failed to pass the exacting standard of moral certainty to discharge its burden of establishing the guilt of the accused-movants to secure their conviction for the crimes charged and overcome their constitutional presumption of innocence.”

The case has nothing to do with the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations, which President Duterte unilaterally “terminated” in November 2017 and regarding which Judge Bunyi-Medina expressed the wish to be resumed. The alleged killings subject of the case, which the prosecution attributed to the New People’s Army (NPA) in Leyte, happened in the early 1980s under the Marcos dictatorship.

Acknowledgment that several of the accused have participated in the peace talks as either NDFP negotiators or peace consultants apparently led the judge to reflect that the process needs to be taken up again.

Moreover, she personally feels strongly over “atrocities” committed by both the parties to the 50-year-plus armed conflict between the government and the revolutionary forces led by the CPP-NPA. “For no matter how some romanticize and/or philosophize that there is beauty in chaos and there is such [a] thing as necessary evil,” she wrote in conclusion, “this Court finds that where peace and harmony reign is still the best place we could ever be.”

Now, about the case. I beg your indulgence to let me say what I need to say:

Among all the accused whom the prosecution alleged to be “members of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) central committee,” I was the only one implicated as having a direct role in implementing a supposed “purging the ranks of suspected military informers.” At least six prosecution witnesses testified that I came to Inopacan, Leyte – introducing myself by my real name when everyone else used aliases – and jointly presided over a meeting of regional CPP-NPA leaders.

The court, however, found ALL of their testimonies “not only contradicted themselves in recollecting the events subject of these cases” but “are likewise at loggerheads with the others.” As such, the court added, “their collective testimonies and the narratives they were trying to depict consequently suffer and thus, they deserve no evidentiary weight and value.”

Here’s how the case began:

State prosecutors originally filed the case in February 2007 before RTC Branch 18 in Hilongos, Leyte. At the time I was a member of the House of Representatives facing a rebellion charge along with my five party-list colleagues in that chamber. President Gloria Arroyo’s national security adviser bragged he authored the charge – a form of political harassment. Reporters dubbed us the “Batasan 6.” We had petitioned the Supreme Court to dismiss the case for being spurious.

In March 2007 I separately asked the Supreme Court to dismiss the Hilongos “multiple murder” case because, as my lawyer argued, the murder charges ought to be subsumed into the rebellion case in accordance with the political offense doctrine (set in the Amado V. Hernandez rebellion case in 1956). A magistrate was assigned to pen the ruling, while the court granted me a P100,000 bail effective until the resolution of the case.

But before a ruling could be written, the SC dismissed the rebellion case in July 2007.

In April 2008 the SC allowed the transfer of the Hilongos case to the Manila RTC, which was raffled off to Branch 32. However, Judge Bunyi-Medina started hearings only on Sept. 30, 2014, after the SC, in February, had dismissed my petition for certiorari. With the dismissal of the rebellion case, the tribunal ruled, my argument was rendered moot.

I have long found peace within myself. This is the 10th court battle I’ve won. Join me in a Christmas wish for justice, peace and joy to one and all!

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