A coaccused of retired Major General Jovito Palparan Jr. in the abduction of two student-activists of the University of the Philippines has invoked an executive order of prewar Commonwealth President Manuel L. Quezon to remain in the custody of the Philippine Army.
Staff Sgt. Edgardo Osorio, through his lawyer Joey Cruz, cited the 1937 colonial-era statute to oppose the Department of Justice’s motion for reconsideration of the court’s earlier order transferring Osorio from a provincial jail to military custody.
The Philippines gained independence from United States rule in 1946.
Osorio’s lawyer invoked the late Quezon’s Executive Order No. 106, authorizing the Army commanding general to take custody of Army personnel charged with a crime from trial up to conviction to oppose the DOJ’s motion for reconsideration.
“Unless repealed, it’s still effective. It’s the burden of the prosecution (to show) that it’s no longer existing and effective,” Cruz said in a phone interview, referring to the 1937 EO.
Lawyer Edre Olalia, a member of the National Union of People’s Lawyers that serves as private prosecutors for the victims’ families, said the Quezon EO had been superseded by the Revised Rules of Criminal Procedure which provide that an arrested person must be brought to the nearest police station and confined in a civilian facility.
“It’s ridiculous for them to be invoking an ancient and obscure law,” he said by phone.
Osorio, Palparan and Colonel Felipe Anotado are facing charges of kidnapping and serious illegal detention in a Malolos regional trial court in connection with the disappearance of students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño.