PAO asks court to speed up arrest of forensic official
THE Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) said it will seek court intervention to ask the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) why it failed to arrest its forensic officer who processed the remains of the victims of the MV Princess of the Stars sinking.
PAO chief Persida Rueda-Acosta said they will ask Regional Trial Court Judge Soliver Peras of Branch 10 to order NBI Director Magtanggol Gatdula to explain why the agency didn’t arrest Bautista.
Last month, Peras ordered the arrest of Bautista, an NBI forensic expert, for delaying the release of records on postmortem tests done for the identification of remains of the passenger-victims of the MV Princess of the Stars to the PAO.
Baustista, head of the NBI-Disaster Victims Identification (NBI-DVI) team, was cited in contempt of court and issued the arrest warrant last Oct. 7.
A copy of the arrest order was received by the NBI headquarters.
Gatdula was given 10 days to serve the arrest warrant.
Bautista was ordered detained until he complies with the court order to release the documents needed by the PAO.
However, Acosta said Bautista has not complied with their request until now.
Last Sept. 1, Acosta said they went to the NBI’s Manila office to procure the documents but came out empty.
She said they needed the documents so that their own forensic experts could start identifying cadavers recovered from the sunken ship. Bautista denied he was withholding the documents.
He said he was willing to give the documents to the PAO.
But Bautista said the victims’ data remain “confidential” as agreed upon by the NBI and Interpol, an agency that helped local authorities in identifying the cadavers.
Bautista said he was on sick leave and wasn’t able to meet with the PAO team last Sept. 1.
But he said he instructed his staff to allow the PAO to photocopy the documents.
He said PAO chief Acosta and the other lawyers decided to return after seeing the “voluminous” documents.
For several months after the sinking, experts from the NBI and Interpol had been using DNA testing of human tissue or bone.
Around 560 cadavers have been recovered from the sunken ship. Of the number, 111 remains unidentified.
The MV Princess of the Stars capsized off Romblon at the height of Typhoon Frank while en route to Cebu City on June 21, 2008. Of 820 people on board, only 32 survived.
For his part Fr. Robert Reyes, the spiritual advisor of the families of the victims, said “divine justice” would still prevail.
“I’m not surprised with the outcome, it’s a case of commercial justice,” Reyes told Cebu Daily News.
He expressed skepticism over the court’s decision to dismiss the civil suit filed by one of the families of the victims.
The claimants blamed the management for allowing the vessel to sail despite a typhoon forecast.
Even with the slow legal response on the complaint, Reyes reminded the family to pray for divine justice on the outcome of the case.
“Divine justice is not in favor of the guilty and corrupt. It consoles the family of the victim,” he said.
Reyes called on community support for the victims, saying even the PAO is no match for the corporate legal team of Philippine Span Asia Carrier Group formerly known as Sulpicio Lines Inc. Reporters Ador Vincent Mayol and Candeze R. Mongaya
