Crucial case

This is a case that happened nine years, seven months and seven days ago to be exact that could be very crucial in establishing or disproving, with some degree of certainty, the prevailing notion about the kind of justice system in this country, about the oft repeated but unproven comments circulating not only among lawyers and businessmen but also among other sectors of society, that most of our judges are corrupt or easily corruptible. Given that the trial of the case lasted for almost eight years and has been submitted for decision since two years ago, it can even be said that justice has already been denied to the victim because of the unreasonably prolonged process in securing a court decision after the commission of the crime and apprehension of the suspects. This is indeed a classic example of the most used proverb that “Justice delayed is justice denied”.

The crime here is kidnapping for ransom (KFR) perpetrated on September 27, 2001 in San Fernando, La Union. The victim is Jacky Rowena Tiu, then 29 years old, daughter of a rich family in that city who was forcibly snatched from her mother about 30 meters away from their home. The perpetrators of the crime were seven Chinese nationals from Fookien who arrived and entered the country apparently without proper inspection and admission by the Immigration officials at the port of entry. Right away we can see in this first episode that criminals and kidnappers can easily get in and out of the Philippines and that these aliens who are members of organized crime syndicates in their country, are not afraid of violating our laws and committing crimes here because they believe they can get away with them. In fact the kidnap gang members were so brazen that they did not even bother to camouflage their faces for harder identification.

In this particular case of Jacky however the confidence of the Chinese felons might have been shaken and they might have regretted their brazenness because after Jacky’s father paid the ransom money of P10 million and following her release from 8 days of captivity in two safe houses in Tarlac and Cavite, agents of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Anti Kidnapping Task Force (NAKTAF) then headed by General Hermogenes Ebdane, captured them and recovered the ransom money intact. This is really one case where our law enforcers composing the first pillar in our criminal justice system have ably accomplished their task.

But apparently, these Chinese syndicates have a low regard for our criminal justice system. They still believe that the Philippines is a more “ideal” place than their own country to successfully operate their KFR “business”. In fact this belief really has some basis if we compare this KFR case which has been pending for almost ten years now, to the case of three Filipinos recently executed in China for drug trafficking only several months after being caught. Obviously to these Chinese crime syndicates, the Philippines is still a haven compared to China in carrying out their criminal activities.

Indeed even the Chinese government itself seems to make a mockery of our sovereignty. In this case of Jacky, the Chinese Embassy tried to preempt our judicial processes by writing to our Department of Foreign Affairs expressly declaring that two of the accused identified as Zhang Du aka Wilson Zhang and Zhang Xi Wang aka Michael Zhang are innocent and should be released even before the start of the trial. And it seems that our government somehow succumbed to the pressure when the City investigating prosecutor Oscar Corpuz Sr. downgraded the charge against Zhang Du and another suspect Henry Ong who remained at large, finding probable cause to indict them merely as an accessory and thus making their offense bailable. More disturbing here is that the Regional Trial Court even reduced the bail from P120,000 to P100,000 upon the motion of Zhang Du.

To make matters worse, Zhang Du who subsequently jumped bail and therefore detained again was able to slip out of the country in 2006 apparently with the help of the Bureau of Immigration officials who allegedly found that his documents of entry were fake and thus summarily deported him even escorting him like a VIP at the airport. The more distressing aspect here is that this accused was still under the custody of the court but its permission was not obtained before he was deported. While initial investigations were conducted to determine the culpable officials, nothing concrete has come out of that investigation up to now.

Actually, Jacky’s saga in her seemingly frustrating fight for justice mostly took place inside the courtroom. Testifying for four times in a straightforward and clear manner that lasted for more than three hours before RTC Judge Antonio Carbonell, she unflinchingly stood her ground and positively pointed to her abductors after previously identifying them in a police lineup. But her quest to exact justice upon the culprits has been prolonged because of daunting developments in the case. There were frequent changes of judges because one after the other inhibited himself from trying it or opted for early retirement. The Judge trying the case even appeared to be favoring the accused with his kind of questions. Another judge first inhibited himself then recalled his order and finally re-inhibited himself. 

The trial changed hands among ten judges with six of them inhibiting or opting for early retirement. These developments are really unique and strange. They raise a lot of suspicions as to the hundreds of thousand or even millions of reasons why these judges would do what they did. But the greater cause of concern here is that the case will be decided by a judge who never conducted the trial and never personally saw any of the witnesses testifying which is vital in assessing their credibility.

The case is awaiting promulgation for two years now in the sala of Judge Antonio Rosales in Manila RTC Branch 52. While courts are given 90 days only to decide, Judge Rosales may have valid reasons for the delay. No date of promulgation of judgment has been announced yet. But Jacky whose saga even had a romantic twist when she acquired a partner to champion her cause in the person of former PNP Chief Art Lomibao whom she married a couple of years ago, still remains hopeful that she will succeed in her quest for justice especially because her case appears to be solid since the suspects were practically caught red handed dividing the loot.