MANILA, Philippines -- The Court of Appeals has ordered the release of a pastor who has been accused of murder in Cavite.
In a ruling released Thursday, the appellate court said Pastor Berlin Guerrero would be placed under the care of former Senate president Jovito Salonga and lawyer Emil Capulong.
Associate Justice Martin Villarama said: "We cannot find any probable cause to warrant the issuance of an arrest warrant" against Berlin.
Human rights groups say the pastor was abducted by Naval Intelligence and Security operatives on May 27, 2007. But authorities say Guerrero stands accused of murdering a police officer in 1991. He has since been detained at the Cavite provincial jail in Trece Martires.
During the first day of hearing at the third division of the Court of Appeals, Associate Justice Martin Villarama questioned the basis of detention of the pastor.
The Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order against the start of Guerrero’s murder trial and required government lawyers to submit additional evidence to prove there is enough probable cause to try the pastor.
In an affidavit, the pastor said he was tortured in a safe house and was accused of being an officer of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).
After he was tortured, Guerrero said he was brought to the Philippine National Police's (PNP) Camp Pantaleon Garcia in Imus, Cavite. Only then was he informed by police that he had been arrested for the murder of a certain Noli Yatco.
On June 14, 2007, the Protestant Lawyers' League of the Philippines asked Bacoor, Cavite Regional Trial Court Branch 19 to release Guerrero, quash the warrant for his arrest and dismiss the information for murder filed against him.
But on August 2, 2007, Justice Matias M. Garcia II denied the motion.
Then, on August 24, 2007, Salonga, together with Guerrero's lawyers, filed before the Supreme Court a petition to nullify Garcia's decision, prohibit the lower court from proceeding any further with the case, and order the dismissal of the information for murder against the pastor.
On June 10, 2008, the Supreme Court remanded the case to the Court of Appeals.
