It's final: 'Abadilla 5' guilty

MANILA, Philippines -  The Supreme Court (SC) upheld with finality yesterday the conviction of five men found guilty of killing Rolando Abadilla, former chief of the defunct police Metropolitan Command Intelligence and Security Group, in 1996.

Voting 9-4 with two justices taking no part, the High Court junked a motion seeking the reversal of its September 2010 ruling affirming the Court of Appeals (CA) decision on April 1, 2009 that lowered the sentence from death penalty to life imprisonment on the men dubbed as “Abadilla Five” – Senior Police Officers 2 Cesar Fortuna, Rameses de Jesus Calma, Leonardo Lumanog, Joel de Jesus and Augusto Santos.

The SC ruled that the inconsistencies in the testimony of security guard Freddie Alejo, who witnessed the shooting, were minor and did not warrant the acquittal of the accused.

“Minor inconsistencies are sometimes still part of a credible testimony,” Court Administrator and spokesman Midas Marquez told reporters in a press conference.

The SC stood by its ruling that the CA was correct in dismissing a petition by the convicted killers seeking reversal of the CA decision that affirmed the guilty verdict handed down by Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 103 in 1999.

The SC increased from P50,000 to P75,000 indemnity damages for Abadilla’s death and reduced moral damages awarded to his heirs from P500,000 to P75,000 and exemplary damages from P500,000 to P30,000.

Fr. Robert Reyes and lawyer Argee Guevarra earlier filed a joint manifestation supporting the appeal of the convicted killers and claiming that Abadilla was killed by members of the Alex Boncayao Brigade, a breakaway group of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army. The SC junked their manifestation last month.

Abadilla, according to witnesses accounts, was shot dead by the accused on June 13, 1996 while his car was stuck in traffic along Katipunan Avenue in Quezon City.

The SC stressed that Alejo’s identification of the killers was reliable because he was very near the place where Abadilla was shot and had a good view of the gunmen, not to mention that two lookouts directly approached him and pointed their guns at him, and that there was no evidence the police had supplied or even suggested to Alejo that the appellants were the suspects.

The SC also said that even if the shells and slug found at the crime scene did not match the guns found in the appellants’ possession, this does not disprove their guilt because it was possible that a different set of guns were used in shooting Abadilla. The High Court said the ballistic exam results are dispensable because the appellants were seen shooting the victim.

All five convicted killers had denied any participation in the killing of the former police official, reiterating their defense before the High Court that they only admitted the crime after being allegedly tortured by their police custodian.

The SC, however, said the Commission on Human Rights did not make any categorical finding of physical violence inflicted on the accused by police officers during their investigation. The CHR only found prima facie evidence that the police officers could have violated Republic Act 7438, which defines the rights of those arrested, particularly on visitorial rights and the right to counsel.

The court said appropriate criminal and administrative charges have been filed against these policemen before the Office of the Ombudsman as of July 2007.