MANILA, Philippines—In the wake of the Jan. 24, 2011, killing of Palawan environmentalist and broadcaster Gerry Ortega, the Department of Justice (DOJ) formed a panel of prosecutors to investigate the case.
The panel investigated claims by Ortega’s wife, Patria, that former Palawan Gov. Joel Reyes ordered the killing.
Ortega had often denounced Reyes for his alleged plunder of revenue from the Malampaya gas field.
But on June 8, 2011, the panel ruled that there was no probable cause to indict Reyes, his brother Mario, former Marinduque Gov. Jose Carreon and three others.
However, it approved the filing of a criminal case against Reyes’ former security aide Rodolfo “Bumar” Edrad Jr., Armando Noel, Dennis Aranas and Arwin Arandia.
Claiming to have new evidence, Ortega’s wife sought to have the investigation reopened, filing several petitions in the first panel.
On Sept. 7, 2011, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima created a new prosecution panel to reinvestigate the case. The new panel found probable cause to indict the Reyes brothers, which resulted in the issuance of arrest warrants against them in March 2012 by the Puerto Princesa Regional Trial Court.
The Reyes brothers went into hiding to evade arrest, but their lawyers went to the Court of Appeals to question De Lima’s creation of the second investigative panel.
Last November, the appellate court said De Lima committed grave abuse of discretion when she formed the second panel, instead of carrying out her duty to review the resolution of the first panel. It said that De Lima “blatantly disregarded” Rule 112 of the Rules of Court and the 2000 National Prosecution Service Rule on Appeal, “which are the DOJ’s bibles in the conduct of preliminary investigations.”
The decision was the subject of a motion for reconsideration in the appellate court early this year—Inquirer Research
Sources: Inquirer Archives