Court of Appeals reinstates case vs Ong

MANILA, Philippines - The Court of Appeals has reinstated the case against lawyer Samuel Ong and three others in connection with the alleged serious illegal detention of a military intelligence agent, T/ Sgt. Vidal Doble, when they made public the controversial “Hello Garci” tapes that had caused trouble to the administration of President Arroyo in 2005.

In a 22-page decision, the third division of the appellate court reversed the ruling of Presiding Judge Benjamin Pozon of the Makati City Regional Trial Court Branch 139 that dismissed the case against Ong, actor Rez Cortez, Wilson Fenix and Angelito Santiago for lack of merit in April 2006.

The CA ruled that Pozon, the same judge whose decision on the Subic rape case was also reversed by the CA, acted with grave abuse of discretion when it summarily dismissed the charges against the accused instead of limiting himself only to the determination of a probable cause for the issuance of warrants of arrest. It upheld the position of the government that the determination of probable cause during preliminary investigation, which deals with whether or not there is reasonable ground to believe that the accused is guilty of the offense charged, is the function of the prosecutor, while the determination of probable cause for purposes of issuing a warrant of arrest is made by the judge.

“Verily, the respondent court’s reasons for dismissing the said case are evidentiary in nature, the resolution of which are best left after a full-blown trial on the merits is obtained. For which reason, it acted with grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction,” the ruling penned by Associate Justice Normandie Pizarro stated.

The appellate court also did not give credence to the claim of the respondents that Pozon’s ruling is already final and executory because the 20-day extension to file an appeal granted by the CA to the government is null and void for being in violation of the 60-day reglementary period within which to file an appeal. Instead, the CA said it adopted a liberal application of the procedural rules as it found the ground raised by the OSG in seeking an extension of the period to file the appeal is meritorious.

Judicial notice

“OSG’s handling of other ‘voluminous’ cases as a ground to seek extension might appear lame to some but, taking judicial notice of the load of cases that the said office, as counsel for the people, oversees, such ground may be considered as plausible. Certainly, different factual circumstan­ces must yield different conclusions,” the CA said. The appellate court stressed that there is a need to set aside the order of Pozon as it was issued in violation of the people’s right to due process.

The CA said that the reinstatement of the case does not constitute double jeopardy considering that it was dismissed before arraignment.

The RTC had ruled that the prosecution failed to prove that Doble was forcibly detained at the San Carlos Seminary when Ong surfaced and admitted that he was the source of the “Hello Garci” tapes. Doble was with Ong during that time at the San Carlos Seminary along Edsa, Makati City.

The court also noted Bishop Teodoro Bacani’s testimony. Bacani said that Doble and his live-in partner, Marietta Santos, were freely moving around the seminary during the alleged detention.

Ong, a former National Bureau of Investigation deputy director, said in an interview with a television network that it was high time for the Senate to investigate Doble and uncover the truth behind the controversy. He said he would remain in hiding until President Arroyo comes clean regarding the wiretapping issue.

He earlier accused Mrs. Arroyo of rigging the result of the May 2004 presidential election as revealed in the tapes. Ong sought refuge in the seminary after claiming that disgruntled military intelligence agents gave him the tapes. The case stemmed after Ong held a press conference at the San Carlos Seminary in Makati City in June 2005 to announce that he had the “mother of all tapes” which contained recordings of phone conversations between the President and an official of the Commission on Elections believed to be former Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano on how to rig the outcome of the 2004 presidential election.