SC justice in ‘Kuratong’case gets death threats

A Supreme Court justice who penned the ruling on the controversial Kuratong Baleleng multiple murder case found himself the unwilling recipient of a funeral wreath that was left in front of his residence in Quezon City yesterday.

Initial police reports said the household staff of Justice Romeo Callejo discovered the wreath outside the front gate of his residence on Aruego Street in BF Homes Subdivision early yesterday morning.

Callejo’s housemaid, Alma de la Peña, said the Supreme Court justice and his driver Danny Tolentino were about to leave the house to report for work when they saw the wreath as the main gate was opened.

The wreath, decorated with a sash that read "Condolence to Justice Callejo" in bold, block letters, was left by a still unidentified messenger who apparently scampered away after sensing that Callejo and his driver were emerging from the house, De la Peña said.

Police Officer 1 Alden Lasam, an investigator of Central Police District (CPD)-Station 6 in Batasan Hills, said they have yet to confirm the incident since no one in Callejo’s household reported anything to the police. Lasam said he learned of the incident only from the media.

SC clerk of court Luzviminda Puno confirmed the incident but did not elaborate. Callejo was also not available for comment.

Justice Secretary Simeon Datumanong said he would order the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to look into the case.

Datumanong said the delivery of the funeral wreath is considered a death threat and stressed that such incidents involving Supreme Court justices cannot be ignored.

"I don’t see any valid, justifiable reason for doing that to a good justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines," he said.

Datumanong said he would ask the Philippine National Police (PNP) to provide additional security and "help protect the justices," but only if the Supreme Court asks for it.

"We will wait for a request from the Supreme Court. We cannot just give them security escorts (who may also conduct surveillance) because they (justices) might not like it. They might feel that it is an intrusion into their privacy," Datumanong said.

He said if the Supreme Court makes the request, the Department of Justice (DOJ) will immediately assign NBI agents to provide security and protection.

Authorities, however, refused to say whether the wreath-laying incident is a move to influence the Supreme Court ruling on the motion for reconsideration filed by Lacson on the Kuratong Baleleng case.

Callejo was the ponente of the Supreme Court decision on April 1 ordering the Quezon City regional trial court to proceed "with deliberate dispatch" the trial of the Kuratong Baleleng rubout case in which Lacson was indicted as one of the principal respondents.

Lacson immediately filed a motion of reconsideration before the Supreme Court over the ruling.

Lacson, along with Chief Superintendents Jewel Canson, Romeo Acop and Francisco Zubia, Senior Superintendents Michael Ray Aquino, Cesar Mancao III and Glenn Dumlao and 31 other police officers were indicted for the murder of the gang members on May 18, 1995.

The senator used to head Task Force Habagat of the defunct Presidential Anti-Crime Commission under then Vice President Joseph Estrada.

The group led the arrest and the alleged summary execution of the 11 gang members along Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City.

Government prosecutors who indicted Lacson and 37 others on May 2001 wanted the case reopened after new witnesses surfaced and claimed they were among those who shot the Kuratong Baleleng suspects.

In his motion for reconsideration, Lacson has said he was puzzled by the high tribunal’s reversal of its previous ruling in March that the case could no longer be reopened, citing the two-year prescriptive period.

He also expressed hope that the Supreme Court would correct itself and uphold the "principle of the law and its own rules."

The high tribunal has yet to decide on the motion of reconsideration filed by Lacson. -With AFP