Court orders police official, CIDG-7 submit final arguments
RTC Judge Ramon Codilla ordered the submission of the memoranda after the counsels of the accuser, SPO1 Rodolfo Gabisay, and the accused, the CIDG-7, agreed in last week’s hearing to close their oral arguments and have their memoranda instead to let the court resolve the case finally.
Gabisay was suspended for 60 days effective last October 2 and was no longer allowed to enter the CIDG-7 office at Camp Sotero Cabahug after he was blamed for taking the P11,000 evidence money from the drawer of a fellow police official on August 6.
Gabisay denied the accusations and described the suspension, which was supposed to end by December 2, as illegal. He went to court and asked for a temporary restraining order that would stop CIDG-7 officials from enforcing the suspension order.
Ronald Baquiano, Gabisay’s counsel, argued that his client was not accorded with his constitutional rights to answer the charges against him, and that he was not furnished a copy of the investigation report of CIDG-7 legal officer Enrique Lacerna on the matter before the suspension order was issued by
The copy of the Lacerna report was only received by Gabisay last October 15, or about two weeks after the date the suspension took effect.
Lacerna had committed grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack of excess of jurisdiction when he based his resolution on the presumption that in administrative proceedings public officials are presumed guilty until proven innocent, said Gabisay’s lawyer.
Baquiano contended that Lacerna’s argument only showed the latter’s ignorance of the law. Even the Supreme Court, in the case of Llamoso vs. Sandiganbayan, ruled that the presumption of innocence has been based on the first principles of justice, not as a mere form but a substantial part of the law. — Rene U. Borromeo/RAE
- Latest
- Trending
