Prosecutor on 5-year detention: My fault

MANILA, Philippines - A prosecutor of the Department of Justice (DOJ) has owned up to the delay in the resolution of charges against a drug suspect who was detained for over five years without a case filed against her in court.

Assistant State Prosecutor Gerard Gaerlan said it was his fault that  Joanne Urbina’s right to speedy disposition of the case and basic human rights were violated as declared by the Court of Appeals (CA) in granting her petition for habeas corpus.

“It was an oversight on my part in mishandling the case folder after it was inadvertently mixed with other folders which were already resolved and finalized,” Gaerlan said in a judicial affidavit obtained by The STAR.

Gaerlan’s affidavit was submitted to the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), which represented the DOJ in answering Urbina’s case in the appellate court.

The fiscal attributed his confusion to the transfer of his office from the DOJ annex building to the new multi-purpose building.

Gaerlan recalled receiving on March 26, 2008 Urbina’s records of charges for violation of the Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002. The charges included possession of illegal drugs, equipment and apparatus in making drugs.

He said he was tasked by Senior Deputy State Prosecutor Miguel Gudio to review the resolution of the Quezon City prosecutor’s office that dismissed the same charges filed against Ben Ryan Chua, who was arrested along with Urbina on Dec. 14, 2007.

The fiscal recalled resolving the case and submitting the resolution to Gudio’s office on March 28, 2008.

A draft resolution was forwarded for approval of then Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuño, who submitted it to Undersecretary Jose Vicente Salazar.

The case was returned to Gaerlan on Nov. 25, 2010 after Salazar ordered a revision on the resolution.

“I failed to make the necessary revisions before the case folder was retrieved from me by the office of SDSP Gudio on April 16, 2013,” Gaerlan said.

The OSG was supposed to submit Gaerlan’s affidavit to the CA, but the appellate court already ordered last week the release of Urbina, who has been detained in Camp Crame, Quezon City.

The CA’s Seventh Division ruled that Urbina’s incarceration was “unreasonable, intolerable and shockingly unimaginable.”

It even likened the petitioner to the Guantanamo Bay detainees who have never been allowed a speedy and fair trial, a right granted to all by the Constitution.