Judge inhibits from Carabuena assault case

MANILA, Philippines - The Quezon City judge handling the direct assault charge against motorist Robert Blair Carabuena has voluntarily inhibited herself from the two-year- old case.

Carabuena was a tobacco firm executive who allegedly assaulted Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) traffic constable Saturnino Fabros on Aug. 11, 2012.

A TV5 crew captured the incident on video, which has gone viral on the Internet. The video showed Carabuena berating and physically attacking Fabros, who reportedly accosted him for a traffic violation.

In an eight-page resolution released yesterday, Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 42 Judge Juris Dilinila-Callanta denied for “utter lack of merit” the motion to inhibit filed by Carabuena.

However, she decided to voluntarily inhibit from the case “in order to dispel any doubt of the accused and his counsel and for their peace of mind.”

In his motion, Carabuena – through his lawyers Edwardson Ong, Marforth Fua, and Jake Patrick Posio – claimed that Dilinila-Callanta appears to be “partial, bias and hostile against him.”

He accused the judge of apparent double standard in handling the case, saying she denied an earlier request to reset the hearing even as she allowed previous resetting when it was the prosecution who requested for it.

The prosecutors, however, asked the judge to dismiss the motion to inhibit and accused Carabuena of merely trying to delay the trial.

The judge said the motion to inhibit is totally devoid of any truth, and that the allegation of Carabuena and his counsel has no evidence or proof of partiality.

The case is set to be raffled off to another court.