Victim of circumstances

This is another case of conviction based on circumstantial evidence. This is the case of Anton, a poor boy in his late teens who was forced to work early in life.

Anton works as house helper-gardener for the couple Nelson and Mila, a prominent family with big landholdings in a southern Luzon town. The couple has two sons: Martin also a teenager and Isidro a police major in the local PNP. The family is also related to Roman, a police patrolman and nephew of Mila who bears a grudge against the latter regarding a piece of land he is claiming.

One evening when Nelson was away and only Mila and Martin were in their house together with Anton who used to sleep there also, the door suddenly swung open as three men barged in and one of them hacked Mila at the nape with an axe. Horrified Anton scampered to safety in the kitchen and hid behind two jars as the two other men chased but failed to find him. Then they returned inside and turned to Martin standing beside his bed who was mercilessly hit by the same man who hacked Mila causing his instantaneous death.

Report of the incident reached the town’s PNP the next morning. So PO3 Lando and Capt Leo rushed to the crime scene and found the lifeless body of Mila who appeared to have been strangled and fatally wounded at the nape, as well as that of Martin, who likewise sustained wound on his head. On further investigation they also found an axe and a nylon cord believed to have been used in the killing. The house was also ransacked with some items apparently missing.

Also rushing to the scene was Patrolman Roman whose place was just near. From the crime scene he immediately proceeded to the police station where he obtained an order from the Station Commander to hunt for and apprehend Anton. The latter was seen and nabbed after alighting from a bus on his way to the Pier to board a boat. Seized from him were a cassette and a radio belonging to Martin.

After the post mortem examination by the municipal health officer confirming the cause of death due to hacking, stabbing, strangulation that happened the previous night, Anton was accused of robbery with homicide.

The prosecution presented evidence establishing the following circumstances pointing to Anton as the culprit: he was present at the crime scene as he used to sleep in their house while working as their gardener according to Nelson; he also had in his possession articles belonging to the victims at the time he was apprehended by Pat. Roman; he was seen fleeing from the crime scene and boarding a jeepney looking so perturbed and fearful; he sat at the rear and was always looking out until he alighted to ride a bus to the pier without even asking for his change in payment of the jeepney fare as testified by Cherry, niece of Mila who knew him by face and the jeepney owner Mang Kaloy; and he never reported the incident to anyone despite his being at the crime scene.

For his defense Anton pointed to Roman who had a grudge against the victims regarding a piece of land which he claimed belonged to him. It was Roman who swung the door and, without a word hacked Mila and Martin as his companions ransacked the house. He said he fled after the assailants left for fear of his life because he recognized them and would also kill him. He said he did not report the incident because Roman was also assigned at the police station. In fact he said that when he was arrested, Roman tortured him to admit the crime until he was rescued by Maj Isidro who knew him to be working for Mila.

But the lower court convicted Anton and sentenced him to reclusion perpetua as well as to indemnify the heirs of Mila and Martin in the total amount of P100,000. The court said that the circumstantial evidence presented by the prosecution when taken together led to the inescapable conclusion that Anton was indeed the author of the crime.

On appeal, the Supreme Court however reversed the decision and acquitted Anton. According to the SC, the mere presence of Anton at the crime scene cannot solely be interpreted to mean that he committed the crimes charged because it was not unusual that he was there as he was working there. Equally plausible is his explanation that it was Martin who placed the radio and cassette in his bag. His alleged flight from the crime scene looking so scared and his failure to report the gruesome incident was due to fear that the suspects who knew he witnessed the dastardly act would run after him. And his ability to pay his transportation fare do not conclusive demonstrate that the money were proceeds of the robbery. He was working as gardener and helper, so it is also possible that he had money of his own.

All told whatever apparent weakness in Anton’s defense is no reason to sustain his conviction because conviction of an accused rest on the strength of the prosecution’s evidence and not on the weakness of the defense. (People vs. Geron, G.R. 113788, October 17, 1997).

E-mail: attyjosesison@gmail.com

source:  Philippine Star

A LAW EACH DAY (Keeps Trouble Away) By Jose C. Sison

SC acquits Arroyo

IT’S official and final.

Because of weak evidence, former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was acquitted by the Supreme Court en banc on Tuesday of the crime of plunder in connection with the alleged misuse of P366 million in intelligence funds of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO).

As reported by The Manila Times two weeks ago, Arroyo secured an overwhelming majority of the high court justices, including three of six appointees of her nemesis, former President Benigno Aquino 3rd.

With a vote of 11 against 4, the criminal charge against Arroyo was dismissed by the high court via demurrer to evidence.

The Manila Times on Monday predicted that at least 10 votes would be cast in favor of Arroyo.

The 11 Justices who voted for Arroyo’s acquittal are Associate Justice Lucas Bersamin, the ponente or author of the decision, and Associate Justices Presbitero Velasco Jr., Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, Arturo Brion, Diosdado Peralta, Mariano del Castillo, Jose Perez, Jose Mendoza, Bienvenido Reyes, Estela Perlas-Bernabe and Francis Jardeleza.

Reyes, Perlas-Bernabe and Jardeleza are all appointees of Aquino, whose government kept Arroyo at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center since 2012.

Three other appointees of Aquino voted against Arroyo’s acquittal: Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno and Associate Justices Marvic Leonen and Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa.
Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, an Arroyo appointee, also dissented.

Court spokesman Theodore Te, who announced the results of the vote and read the dispositive portion of the ruling in a news conference, did not give other details.

Several Supreme Court justices who talked to The Manila Times on condition of anonymity said that the ruling means that Arroyo will be immediately released from her detention, after the en banc reversed the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court and granted her plea for demurrer to evidence.

The case cannot be re-filed by the Ombudsman under the principle of double jeopardy.
In effect, the ruling is final and immediately executory.

A demurrer to evidence case happens when the accused pleads for the dismissal of the charges after the prosecution has presented evidence and rested its case.

Arroyo no longer presented evidence before her trial at the Sandiganbayan, arguing that the prosecution, headed by Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales, had insufficient evidence.

The court also voted 10 against 5 to acquit Arroyo’s co-accused, former PCSO official Benigno Aguas.

Justice Bernabe voted against the acquittal of Aguas through a separate concurring and dissenting opinion.

source:  Manila Times

JPE, 92, prevails over state challenge to his bail

The Supreme Court,voting 7-6-1, has denied with finality, for lack of merit the motion for reconsideration filed by the People of the Philippines from the SC’s decision questioning the grant of bail for the temporary liberty of Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile.

The court in its original decision voted 8-4 to  grant bail last August 18 to Enrile,who turned 92 years old last February.

In its original decision  two  SC justices, Diosdado Peralta and Del Castillo qualified their vote citing  the required  “humanitarian grounds.” 

In its resolution, the majority of the tribunal  stated that the people were not kept in the dark about nor were they denied a reasonable opportunity to rebut the instability of his wealth and his advanced age even if these were not raised in the motion for bail.

The court explained that through his omnibus motion dated June 10,2014 and his motion to fix bail dated July 7,2014, Enrile “manifested to the Sandiganbayan his currently frail health,and presented medical certificates to show that his physical condition required constant medical attention.”

The tribunal also cited that through his motion for reconsideration, Enrile “incor-porated the findings of the government physicians to establish the present state of his health.”

On its part, the court also noted that the anti-graft court “solicited the medical opinions of the relevant doctors from the Philippine General Hospital.”

The tribunal also denied there was a preferential treatment accorded to Enrile because he was a senator.

“(T)he court did not grant his (Enrile) provisional liberty because he was a sitting senator of the republic. It did so because there were proper bases—legal as well as factual—for the favorable consideration and treatment of his plea for provisional liberty on bail.”
Those who voted with the ponente , Justice Lucas Bersamin, to deny the motion for reconsideration were Justices Presbitero J. Velasco, Leonardo De Castro,Arturo Brion, Jose Perez and Bienvenido Reyes.Those who joined the dissent by Associate Justice Marvic Leonen were Chief Justice Lourdes Sereno, and Justices Antonio Carpio, Mariano del Castillo, Estela Perlas-Bernabe and Benjamin Caguioa. Justice Francisco Jardeleza took no part and Associate Justice Jose Mendoza is on leave.

Enrile earlier filed a petition for certiorari to assail and annul the resolutions dated July 14, 20142 and August 8, 20143 issued by the Sandiganbayan (Third Division) in Case No. SB-14-CRM-0238, where he has been charged with plunder along with several others. Enrile insists that the resolutions, which respectively denied his Motion To Fix Bail and his Motion For Reconsideration, were issued with grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction, the website of chanrobleslaw quoted the SC’s earlier ruling.

It stated in coming up with antecedents that on June 5, 2014, the Office of the Ombudsman charged Enrile and several others with plunder in the Sandiganbayan on the basis of their purported involvement in the diversion and misuse of appropriations under the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).

 On June 10, 2014 and June 16, 2014, Enrile respectively filed his Omnibus Motion and Supplemental Opposition,praying, among others, that he be allowed to post bail should probable cause be found against him. The motions were heard by the Sandiganbayan after the Prosecution filed its Consolidated Opposition.7

On July 3, 2014, the Sandiganbayan issued its resolution denying Enrile’s motion, particularly on the matter of bail, on the ground of its prematurity, considering that Enrile had not yet then voluntarily surrendered or been placed under the custody of the law.
The Sandiganbayan ordered the arrest of Enrile  and voluntarily surrendered to Director Benjamin Magalong of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in Camp Crame, Quezon City, and was later on confined at the Philippine National Police (PNP) General Hospital following his medical examination.

Enrile argued that he should be allowed to post bail because: (a) the Prosecution had not yet established that the evidence of his guilt was strong; (b) although he was charged with plunder, the penalty as to him would only be reclusion temporal, not reclusion perpetua; and (c) he was not a flight risk, and his age and physical condition must further be seriously considered.

By July 14, 2014, the Sandiganbayan issued its first assailed resolution denying Enrile’s Motion to Fix Bail, saying that the it  is only after the prosecution shall have presented its evidence and the Court shall have made a determination that the evidence of guilt is not strong against accused Enrile can he demand bail as a matter of right. Then and only then will the Court be duty-bound to fix the amount of his bail.

The court added that  no such determination had been made by the Court and that Enrile has not filed an application for bail. Necessarily, no bail hearing can even commence. It is thus exceedingly premature for accused Enrile to ask the Court to fix his bail.

The Sadiganbayan ruling also said that Enrile’s argument was that the Court should grant him bail because while he is charged with plunder, “the maximum penalty that may be possibly imposed on him is reclusion temporal, not reclusion perpetua.” based on Section 2 of R.A. No. 7080, as amended, and on the allegation that he is over seventy (70) years old and that he voluntarily surrendered. “Accordingly, it may be said that the crime charged against Enrile is not punishable by reclusion perpetua, and thus bailable.”
But stated that the argument has no merit.

source:  The Daily Tribune

The death penalty and state monopoly of violence

I WAS developing a column on “due process of law,” built around the prizefight being promoted (by the Inquirer) between the fiscalizer (Sen. Leila de Lima) and The Punisher (President Rodrigo Duterte), when I realized that the boxing imagery would cheapen the more fundamental issues involved in the depressing spectacle of state-sanctioned killings in the country today.

I thought it would be more useful if I examined instead the underlying clash between the right of criminal suspects to due process and the right of society to protect itself and its members.

While doing research on this weighty subject, I was startled to find strong and persuasive literature in support of both sides.

Daniel Webster’s noble summation, “Due process of law is that which hears before it condemns, which proceeds upon inquiry, and renders judgment only after trial,” stands out as a banner for due process, in addition to the Bill of Rights in the Constitution.

On the other side, there is also much persuasive literature and equally explicit constitutional provisions that argue eloquently for the assertion of state responsibility to suppress the lawless.

Conventional thinking presumes that this debate was settled long ago in favor of the rights of suspects to due process over the rights of society to protect itself.

The advent of Duterte is a reminder that the debate is far from settled. There is a strong current of opinion in this country in favor of a hard-line policy against crime, especially the illegal drugs trade.

Duterte conducting a class on public policy
I think what is happening is this: President Duterte is conducting a class in public policy in which we the citizens are the students.

The subject is not the illegal drugs trade, but two critical and related topics:

1. The moral argument or rationale for capital punishment and the execution of criminals.

2. The state’s monopoly of violence, which seeks to crush lawless elements (organized crime, terrorism, insurgency) in the country.

These are fields of study and research in political science, criminology and police science, and sociology.

To take the topics in sequence, this is what DU30 appears to be telling us.

Why the death penalty is necessary
Like other government executives before him, Duterte believes that the death penalty “affirms life.” By failing to execute murderers or stop drug lords, we signal a lessened regard for the value of the lives of victims. People who oppose the death penalty are like the neighbors of a teenage murder victim, who heard her cries for help but did nothing. They are like the neighbors who looked away while the drug pusher plied their ugly trade and ruined the lives of people.

This is the standard “moral defense” of death as punishment. Even if executions don’t deter violent crime or the drugs trade any more effectively than imprisonment, the death penalty is still required as the only means society has of doing justice in response to the worst of crimes.

One former mayor of New York City, Edward Koch, fully endorses this view of the death penalty. He has authored a famous article, “Death and justice: How capital punishment affirms life,” which lays out his argument cogently and persuasively.

He concluded the article with these words: “The death of anyone—even a convicted killer—diminishes us all. But we are diminished even more by a justice system that fails to function. It is an illusion to let ourselves believe that doing away with capital punishment moves the murderer’s deed from our conscience. The rights of society are paramount…

“It is hard to imagine anything worse than being murdered while neighbors do nothing. But something worse exists. When those same neighbors shrink back from justly punishing the murderer, the victim dies twice.”

Duterte’s thinking with respect to illegal drugs is similar to this. He shares the frustration and anger of people who see that the Aquino government did nothing to combat the drug menace. So what if the death penalty doesn’t work as a deterrent? At least it gives citizens the satisfaction of knowing that we got one or two of the sons of bitches.

State monopoly of violence
The other powerful argument focuses on the state’s monopoly of legitimate physical force in society.

State monopoly of violence is the concept that the state alone has the right to use or authorize the use of physical force. It is widely regarded as a defining characteristic of the modern state.

In his lecture “Politics as a Vocation” (1918), the German sociologist Max Weber defines the state as a “human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory.”

The concept does not imply that the state is the only actor actually using violence but, rather, that it is the only actor that can legitimately authorize its use. The state can grant another actor the right to use violence without losing its monopoly, as long as it remains the only source of the right to use violence.

The monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force, also known as the monopoly on violence, is a core concept of modern public law.

This monopoly is limited to a certain geographical area. A necessary condition of statehood is the retention of such a monopoly.

De Lima vs Duterte
Because government has failed miserably to solve the great problems of national life, Duterte is taking us back to the basics of governance to find the wellsprings for effective government.

In law enforcement, his government is searching for the right policy mix that will enable it to overcome the threat posed by organized crime, repel the threat of Islamist terrorism, and negotiate lasting peace with insurgents.

At the moment, the public eye is riveted more on the responsibility of government than on the rights of criminal suspects.

The safety of society comes first. The court process can wait. This is one big reason why the death toll is high and mounting.

The balance will tilt when Congress debates the issue and conducts its promised inquiries into the killings.

“I am watching you,” Sen. De Lima has warned the President.

No doubt, the President is watching her in turn.

This is going to be one hell of a prizefight, when Sen. Manny Pacquiao also gets into the ring.

yenmakabenta@yahoo.com

source:  Manila Times

Aquino, Abad charged over DAP

Various groups charged former president Benigno Aquino 3rd and former Budget chief Florencio Abad for technical malversation on Friday, making good on their vow to bring the two to court over the implementation of the controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).

In a 26-page complaint filed before the Ombudsman, groups led by the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption, Bayan Muna and Gabriela argued that the DAP—supposedly an economic stimulus program that allowed agencies under the executive branch to declare their unspent appropriations as savings anytime and realign the funding with the previous administration’s pet projects including those of lawmakers—was a clear mismanagement of public funds.

The Supreme Court declared the DAP illegal in July 2014 and affirmed its ruling in February 2015 on the grounds that the Constitution does not allow agencies to declare savings at any time and transfer the money to another branch of government.

Former deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said the complaint was not surprising.

“It is clearly part of their continuing harassment of a president who refused to be cowed by their chest-beating during his entire term,” she said.

The high tribunal left open the possibility of the “authors” of DAP being held liable for malversation of funds.

“The DAP was nothing more than presidential pork taken from forced savings then realigned for pet projects of the President. It was presidential pork used to entice lawmakers to impeach then convict former chief justice Renato Corona,” Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Carlos Zarate said.

Corona, who succumbed to cardiac arrest in April, was convicted by the Senate impeachment court of betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution for supposedly hiding his wealth in his statements of assets and liabilities from 2002 to 2012.

To bolster their claims, the complainants cited a memorandum sent by Abad on October 12, 2011 to then President Aquino stating: “Mr. President, this is to formally confirm your approval of the Disbursement Acceleration Program totaling P72.11 billion. We are already working with all the agencies concerned for the immediate execution of the projects therein.”

This memorandum was followed by another memorandum for the President dated December 12, 2011 requesting omnibus authority to consolidate savings and unutilized balances for fiscal year 2011.

Identical requests for authority to pool savings and to fund projects were also contained in various other memoranda from Abad dated June 25, 2012, September 4, 2012, December 19, 2012, May 20, 2013 and September 25, 2013.

Then President Aquino approved all the requests, withholding approval only on proposed projects contained in the June 25, 2012 memorandum, as shown by his marginal note that indicated that the proposed projects should still be “subject to further discussions.”

The Supreme Court ruling against the DAP pointed out that unreleased appropriations and withdrawn and unobligated allotments under the DAP were not savings, and the use of such appropriations contravened Section 25(5), Article VI of the 1987 Constitution.

Aside from technical malversation, Aquino and Abad were also accused of usurpation of legislative powers as well as graft and corruption.

But for Citizens’ Battle Against Corruption party-list Rep. Sherwin Tugna, the charges against Aquino and Abad would not prosper because the same Supreme Court ruling that found DAP illegal also stated that the President acted with good intentions.

“The virtue of the statement made by the Supreme Court in the DAP case where the SC [Supreme Court] said the executive department acted in good faith… that is a strong defense that the former President can anchor on,” Tugna, a lawyer, said.

The complainants, however, countered that good faith was not an excuse.

“We do not doubt the existence of the presumptions of ‘good faith’ or ‘regular performance of official duty,’ yet these presumptions are disputable and may be contradicted and overcome by other [pieces of] evidence,” they said.

“Many civil actions are oriented toward overcoming any number of these presumptions, and a cause of action can certainly be geared toward such effect. The very purpose of trial is to allow a party to present evidence to overcome the disputable presumptions involved,” the complainants added.

source:  Manila Times