Supreme Court revives kidnap case vs 6 ex-cops

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) revived a 2001 kidnapping case against six former officers of Northern Police District that the Court of Appeals (CA) had already dismissed.

In a decision dated April 13 but released yesterday, the first division of the High Court remanded the case to the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 41, saying the lower court should decide on the merits of the case and not rely solely on the resolution of the Department of Justice (DOJ). 

The SC reversed the 2004 ruling of the CA that upheld the resolution of the DOJ in 2002 dismissing the kidnapping case against then Chief Inspector Michael Angelo Martin, Inspector Allanjing Medina, Police Officer 3 Arnold Asis, PO2 Pedro Gutierrez, PO2 Ignacio De Paz and PO2 Antonio Berida Jr.

The policemen were accused of abducting Maca-angcos Alaqiya, Isagani Abdul and Sarah Langco at gunpoint along U.N. Avenue in Manila on Sept. 11, 2001 and releasing them the next day after supposedly getting a ransom of P700,000 and two vehicles.

DOJ prosecutor Emmanuel Velasco, on Jan. 24, 2002, filed the information with the Manila RTC and recommended no bail against the accused.

But on Sept. 24, 2002, then DOJ Secretary Hernando “Nani” Perez reversed the resolution of the fiscal and ordered the dismissal of the complaint filed with the trial court.

Perez said the incident was not a kidnapping but supposedly a “bungled buy-bust operation” based on a statement of Cesar Landayan, a taxi driver who witnessed the incident.

Landayan, in his sworn statement, said he was apprehended by the policemen along with the petitioners. He said all of them were released from police custody at around 12:50 p.m. on the same day they were arrested – refuting the statement of complainants that they were released the next day.

The DOJ gave more credence to the testimony of Landayan, saying it could not be discredited as cover-up because it was made three days after the incident as compared to the complaint of the supposed victims, filed seven days after the incident.

The victims brought the case to the CA, which upheld Perez’s resolution in June 2004. But the SC ruled that the dismissal of the case should have come from the trial court.

“Trial judges are not bound by the Secretary of Justice’s reversal of the prosecutor’s resolution finding probable cause,” the SC said.

The High Court added that trial judges are required to make their own assessment of the existence of probable cause separately and independently of the evaluation of the DOJ. – Edu Punay