MANILA, Philippines – Former Occidental Mindoro congressman Ricardo Quintos accused yesterday the justices of the Court of Appeals’ 5th Division of impropriety for allegedly accepting bribes to reverse the conviction for double murder of ex-Rep. Jose Villarosa.
Quintos told ABS-CBN News Channel that the CA ruling only confirmed their family’s worst fears – the acquittal of Villarosa, convicted mastermind in the killing of his two sons Michael and Paul Quintos in 1997 in Mamburao, Occidental Mindoro.
He cited the previous ruling of the CA’s 5th Division granting a bail of P200,000 to Villarosa despite his conviction for double murder.
“Who would believe that a (suspect in a) double murder case would be granted bail? And yet two weeks before that, they (Villarosa’s camp) had streamers all over Mindoro saying he was coming out on P200,000 bail. And we didn’t believe it. Lo and behold it happened. So it’s a very traumatic experience for us. And because of that, we were forcing the issue on the inhibition of this Justice Tijam,” Quintos said.
The CA’s 5th Division released yesterday a ruling, penned by Justice Noel Tijam, that reversed a lower court’s conviction of Villarosa and three other suspects.
Asked if he would press administrative charges against the members of CA 5th Division for alleged impropriety, Quintos said: “What do you mean impropriety? It’s the talk of the town that the justices have already been paid and the acquittal was forthcoming. What do you call that? As a matter of fact, even before the (CA) resolution came out, they (Villarosa’s camp) are already announcing in Mindoro over the radio and there were fireworks all over, saying he was already acquitted when we have not received the resolution yet.”
He disclosed that he is consulting his lawyers for the possible filing of administrative charges against the members of the CA’s 5th Division as well as to question the ruling before the Supreme Court.
“Because the lower court heard the case for 8 years and 6 months. Judge Teresa Yadao (of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court) really went through it and their (Villarosa) defense was very flimsy, which was alibi only. Can you imagine three of the accused gunmen were convicted but the mastermind and the rest were acquitted? How could you believe that the gunmen and those who perpetrated the crime had nobody behind them and did it on their own?” Quintos added.
Quintos reiterated the confessions made by the three gunmen – before the municipal trial court, the National Bureau of Investigation, and the Department of Justice – categorically pointed to Villarosa as the mastermind of the killing of his two sons.
“They (three gunmen) were even requesting the DOJ to place them under the Witness Protection Program, (but this) was not granted. So the confession was very clear. It was a very long confession pointing to the mastermind and all those who participated, plus the details of the heinous crimes,” Quintos pointed out.
After the killing of his two sons, Quintos lamented that there were more incidents in Occidental Mindoro that were allegedly traced to Villarosa, but the murders were blamed on communist New People’s Army (NPA) rebels operating in their province.
“And the deputy provincial commander testified in court that he was arresting one of the suspects and Villarosa intervened,” Quintos said.
“Anyway, they (CA justices) have signed my death warrant. But I believe there is still divine justice. They have been trying to get rid of me ever since. We’ve been victim of three ambuscades and it was always conveniently blamed on the NPA,” Quintos said.
Quintos said he and his family have been living with death threats ever since this political feud with the Villarosa family.
Asked where these death threats come from, Quintos said: “From the Villarosas, who else.”
In a separate interview with ANC, Villarosa vehemently denied the allegations of Quintos.
“NPA Ka Roger (NPA spokesman Gregorio Rosal) in several radio and news reports admitted it was the NPA. But of course Quintos, being a critical opponent, wanted me out of the picture and so he was insisting that I should be charged,” Villarosa said.
Villarosa belied Quintos’ claims they knew of the CA ruling weeks ahead.
“Of course not. You cannot rely on the lying of Quintos because he’s used to lying. There was no word that we knew for a fact that the decision would be forthcoming,” Villarosa said.
Villarosa admitted though that last Dec. 4, there was a legal opinion by the Office of the Solicitor General submitted to the CA which recommended his acquittal after they reviewed the decision of Judge Yadao.
“So on that basis, we were actually confident that we will be acquitted because we know for a fact that the judge has erred in her judgment. But we never knew anything about it until yesterday, (and) last night when we received the decision of the CA. As a matter of fact, we didn’t know about the promulgation until yesterday. So Quintos saying that we knew weeks before about the decision is completely not true,” Villarosa said.
He said Quintos is courting the ire of the CA justices for making the bribery charges against them.
“I think the justices will be very angry at him because we have never attempted to bribe anyone in this particular case. Mr. Quintos is harping on that. As a matter of fact, he filed a petition to inhibit the justices. But when there was a hearing about his complaint, he was never able to defend his claim and he, in fact, apologized to the justices. So how come he is now saying we bribed again the justices,” Villarosa countered.
Villarosa, however, expected Quintos to appeal the ruling.
“Of course, that’s his privilege. But under the law, when acquitted, no other course can be filed against the decision. I think he should know his law because he was a congressman before,” he pointed out.