SC tells appeals court to hear pastor’s plea
By Leila Salaverria
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 23:09:00 07/08/2008
MANILA, Philippines -- The Supreme Court has directed the Court of Appeals to hear the petition of a detained Protestant pastor who had alleged that he was tortured by police and charged with murder without basis.
Pastor Berlin Guerrero of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, joined by former senator Jovito Salonga, among others, had sought the high court’s help to secure his release and stop court proceedings on what he claimed was a baseless murder charge.
The high tribunal said the allegations raised in the pleading contained issues of facts that it could not take cognizance of because it was not “a trier of facts.”
But instead of dismissing Guerrero’s plea, the high court said it should be brought to the appellate court, considering the gravity of his allegations.
“In view of the seriousness of the allegations of the violations of the liberty and dignity of a citizen who is said to be under detention, and in order that this case be acted upon with dispatch, the court, instead of dismissing this petition outright, hereby resolves to remand the case to the Court of Appeals,” it said in an en banc resolution released last month.
Guerrero was allegedly abducted on May 27, 2007 and tortured by men in civilian clothes. Later, he was informed by police that he had been arrested for the murder of a certain Noli Yatco.
He petitioned the Bacoor, Cavite regional trial court to have the charge against him dismissed, but his motion was denied, prompting him to run to the high court for help.
In the petition filed with the Supreme Court, Guerrero, with Salonga as well as other church groups and a Catholic Bishop, said there was no probable cause to try the accused for Yatco’s death.
The petition said Guerrero was never informed of the charges against him and that the witness who had implicated him never appeared before the judge who had conducted the preliminary investigation.
It also said the RTC disregarded the facts. It pointed out that during the preliminary investigation, the judge had stated that without the testimony and examination of the eyewitness, whom she acknowledged of failing to examine, there would be nothing to link the pastor to the alleged murder.
But the judge still allowed the murder charge to be filed, the petition said.
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