Court orders NBI to bring Arles slay suspect to hearing today

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines — Will the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) bring suspect Eddie Fortunado to a court hearing today, or face contempt?

“We cannot defy the order of the court,” NBI Bacolod head Ferdinand Lavin said last Aug. 16, immediately after the summary hearing, when asked if they will bring Fortunado to a court hearing which has been reset to today. 

Lavin said there is no reason for the NBI not to comply with the order of the court, but they will take the matter up with the higher management of the NBI.

Regional Trial Court Branch 42 Judge Fernando Elumba ordered the NBI and its legal counsel, Ormil Go, to bring Fortunado to the hearing of the petition for Writ of Amparo, or the court will charge them for contempt.

Fortunado, one of the 10 suspects in the murder of Kabankalan Judge Henry Arles last April 24, is in custody of the NBI-Manila together with Jessie Daguia and Vincent Capunong. 

Tessa, mother of Fortunado, has filed a petition for Writ of Amparo against NBI director Nonnatus Caesar Rojas, Lavin and NBI agents Syrus Aluzan and Modesto Orestes Cajita.  

Elumba granted the petition on August 9, and ordered the NBI to “produce the living body of Fortunado and to explain why he is being restrained of his liberty and as well as why torture is being inflicted on his person, and to produce all documents that may have been signed by Fortunado during his confinement under the custody of NBI.”

Go, during the summary hearing last week, questioned the order of Elumba, saying the Writ of Amparo applies only to extra-legal killings and enforced disappearances. “There was killing but the subject was not the one who died. He has not even disappeared,” he told the court, adding that the relatives of Fortunado were even able to visit the suspect at NBI Manila.

Romeo Subaldo Sr., counsel for Tessa, disagreed with Go’s manifestations, saying the contents of the petition to a Writ of Amparo also includes the right to life and liberty. – THE FREEMAN