Government ‘persecuting’ Ping on KB case — CA justice

The government is apparently persecuting Sen. Panfilo Lacson in connection with the May 1995 alleged execution of 11 suspected members of the Kuratong Baleleng robbery gang, a Court of Appeals (CA) justice has written.

Justice Eriberto Rosario said it was "necessary" for him and his colleagues to issue a permanent injunction to stop the Department of Justice from prosecuting Lacson.

Lacson at the time was chief of the defunct Presidential Anti-Crime Commission’s (PACC) Task Force Habagat during the administration of President Ramos.

"Another recognized exception is where the case is one of persecution rather than prosecution. Apparently, hints of persecution are manifest in the case of Lacson," Justice Eriberto Rosario wrote in August 2001 in a 23-page resolution, citing the upgrading of Lacson’s status in the case from accessory to principal.

"For one, Lacson is now charged as a principal — obviously to preclude any opportunity on his part to evade incarceration by seeking bail. Persecution is likewise apparent in the hurried pace at which the investigation was complete, " Rosario wrote in the 23-page CA resolution.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court (SC) ordered the Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) to review its earlier decision dismissing murder charges against Lacson in connection with the Kuratong Baleleng case.

The SC, in a 13-0 vote, ordered RTC Judge Ma. Theresa Yadao to study whether the March 1999 decision of her predecessor, Judge Wenceslao Agnir, was valid. Justices Antonio Carpio and Jose Melo abstained.

The SC also ordered Yadao to "determine the factual and legal issues" related to the Kuratong Baleleng case. Yadao is an appointee of President Estrada following recommendation by his brother-in-law Raul de Guzman and former Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile.

The May 28 SC ruling was silent on an immediate reopening of the case, but it may pave the way for a revival of the charges against Lacson, who was also the head of the now-defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force during the Estrada government.

Then QCRTC Judge Wenceslao Agnir dismissed the case, which prompted the government to go to the CA which also dismissed the case. The government elevated its appeal to the SC which ruled on Tuesday to remand the case to the QCRTC, ordering it to review its dismissal of the case.

CA August 2001 ruling on KB case ‘doubtful’: SC

The August 2001 findings of the CA which declared that relatives of the 11 Kuratong Baleleng gang members who were allegedly killed in May 1995 were "notified" of the status of the case in 1999 is "doubtful," the SC has discovered.

The 13 SC justices who voted to remand the multiple murder suit to the QCRTC said the findings made by the CA regarding the circumstances behind the dismissal of the case by Agnir were suspicious.

"It is doubtful whether this finding is supported by the records of the case," the SC commented on the 23-page resolution by the CA.

The SC recognized the statement made by Rosario and Justices Conrado Vasquez Jr., Hilarion Aquino, and Josefina Salonga that declared "records show that the prosecution and the private offended parties were notified of the hearing."

The SC justices likewise lamented that the CA justices did not even exert efforts to check whether the March 1999 dismissal of the case by Agnir, who is now a CA judge, had complied with the rules of procedure.

"The Appelate Court did not require the parties to elucidate the crucial issue of whether notices were given to the offended parties before Judge Agnir ordered the dismissal of the cases," the SC said in an 18-page unsigned resolution.

Government lawyers said only seven of the 11 families knew of the real status of the case.

The SC justices said that records would show that relatives of three victims, namely, Meleubren Soronda, Pacifico Montero Jr. and Alex Neri, were never notified of the Kuratong Baleleng hearings.

Under the Revised Rules of Criminal Procedures’ Section 8, Rule 117, it is provided that dismissals of cases, once it has reached the two-year ban, can only be valid if it had the consent of the accused, and if the victims were notified, among others.

"The records of the case, however, do not reveal with equal clarity and conclusiveness whether notices to the offended parties were given. It appears from the resolution that the relatives who desisted did not appear during the hearing," the SC said in the Tuesday ruling.

Lacson and his co-accused were originally charged with summarily killing the 11 suspected members of the Kuratong Baleleng gang. However, Lacson and the others insist it was a shootout.

The QCRTC dismissed the case in 1991 following the assumption of Estrada of the presidency. Closely identified with Estrada, Lacson was appointed by the then president as chief of the Philippine National Police despite the Kuratong Baleleng controversy.

Lacson ran and won in the Senate elections in May 2001 under the Estrada party.