TRO puts stop to Gatdula probe

A Manila court granted Friday a 72-hour temporary restraining order (TRO) sought by relieved National Bureau of Investigation (NBI)

Director Magtanggol Gatdula stopping Justice Secretary Leila de Lima and members of her department’s fact-finding panel from continuing its preliminary investigation on his alleged involvement in the kidnapping and serious illegal detention of a Japanese woman in October last year.

President Benigno Aquino last week ordered Gatdula’s relief based on findings submitted to his office by the fact-finding panel of the Department of Justice (DOJ), headed by undersecretary Francisco Baraan III, assistant secretary Zabedin Asis and city prosecutor Donald Lee, which linked the former NBI director to the alleged kidnap victim Noriyo Ohara. Bureau officials also reportedly extorted

P6 million from her.

Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 22 Executive Judge Marino de la Cruz granted Gatdula a temporary reprieve, citing a provision in the Rules of Court giving the court discretionary authority to consider applications for the issuance of a TRO effective for 72 hours from the time of the issuance “if the matter is of extreme urgency and the applicant will suffer grave injustice and irreparable injury.”

“The court after a careful study of the allegations and arguments contained in the verified petition (filed by Gatdula) finds the presence of the aforementioned elements. Further, the conduct of a special raffle is allowed in cases involving an application for the issuance of a TRO,” De la Cruz said,  citing a Supreme Court circular where the urgency of a petition  merits a special raffle.

The case was raffled off to Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 8 Judge Felixberto Olalia who scheduled a hearing on Monday. Olalia also  required the presence of De Lima and the three other respondents in the petition, Baraan, Asis and Lee in  court.

The deadline for the submission of the DOJ preliminary investigation report on the  case against Gatdula, NBI security and management division (SMD) head Mario Garcia, and other bureau officials and personnel implicated in the crime falls on the same day.

In his petition Gatdula assailed what he called  the unconstitutionality of the fact-finding panel and the proceedings it conducted, claiming that “it no less violates several rights of a person enshrined in the bill of rights” and that the issuance made by the DOJ, particularly DOJ order 47 series of 2012, was done in clear grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction on the part of De Lima.

The former NBI official said the investigation report had  made him a victim of injustice, and  allowing the preliminary investigation by the members of the same panel, based on the same pieces of documentary and testimonial evidence, would subject him to further injustice.

Gatdula described the DOJ proceedings  a “witch-hunt” that had tainted his character and prejudged him “without giving him the opportunity to avail of his constitutional rights  to defend himself.”