CA clears ex-governor in Ortega slay case

MANILA, Philippines - The quest for justice for slain broadcaster Gerry Ortega on Jan. 24, 2011 suffered a major setback yesterday after the Court of Appeals (CA) effectively stopped the indictment of the alleged mastermind, fugitive former Palawan Gov. Joel Reyes.

Voting 3-2, the special 10th division of the appellate court voided the reinvestigation conducted by the Department of Justice (DOJ) where a second panel of prosecutors reversed the finding of an earlier panel and approved the indictment of Reyes.

As a result, the CA voided the finding of probable cause against the former governor and his brother, Mayor Mario Reyes of Coron town, who was earlier cleared by another CA division in November last year.

The CA held that the DOJ erred in creating another panel to reinvestigate the murder case based on new evidence.

It explained that Justice Secretary Leila de Lima should instead act on a pending petition for review filed by Ortega’s wife Patty before her office.

“The Secretary of Justice should act on it and she could either modify, reverse or affirm the resolution of the first Panel of Prosectors when she resolves the said petition for review,” read the ruling penned by Associate Justice Angelita Gacutan.

But for now the CA stressed that the findings of the first panel of investigating prosecutors in June 2011 – which dismissed for insufficiency of evidence the murder complaint against the Reyes brothers – should stand.

“For all legal intents and purposes therefore, petitioner (Reyes) should not have been indicted for the crime of murder,” it pointed out.

The CA also explained that the second panel, which was created through Department Order No. 710, did not have the power to reverse the findings of the earlier panel.

“It must be remembered that the first panel and second panel of prosecutors are coequals. It will have to be their superior, in this case, the Public Respondent Secretary of Justice who can, consistent with the rules, modify, affirm or reverse the finding of either of them,” it added.

A counsel of the Reyes brothers, Ferdinand Topacio, immediately welcomed the decision that he described as “vindication.”

“Our client stands vindicated in the eyes of the law, absolved of involvement in a crime he did not commit, but imputed to him by a conspiring cabal of political enemies bent on vendetta,” he said in a statement.

The Ortegas, on the other hand, have yet to comment on this development.