Den of thieves?

The Court of Appeals has considerably weakened the kidnapping charges filed against some personnel of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) with the exclusion of its former director, Magtanggol Gatdula, from the case.

Noriyo Ohara, a Japanese woman, was kidnapped by NBI agents three years ago and held for ransom at the NBI headquarters until this writer exposed the crime.

According to witnesses, Gatdula was indirectly involved in the kidnapping because he tried to cover up his men’s participation.

This was also the impression of a fact-finding panel formed by Justice Secretary Leila de Lima to look into the matter.

I hold the same view since I also testified before the panel and heard the accounts of fellow witnesses.

I am not saying that Gatdula ordered Noriyo’s kidnapping. His fault was that he tried to cover up for his men after he found out about the kidnapping.

The appellate court said that Gatdula’s constitutional rights against self-incrimination and to remain silent were violated when he was invited as a “resource person” by the investigating panel only to be charged with kidnapping later on.

Don’t be surprised if Gatdula’s coaccused will invoke the same defense and get acquitted as well, thanks but no thanks to the honorable justices of the Court of Appeals who issued the ruling.

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A lot of eyebrows have been raised when the accused in a well-publicized kidnapping case gets off scot-free while Navy officers found innocent by police investigators are held liable for murder by the same appellate court.

Is it because the former has the backing of an influential religious sect while the latter have no powerful backers?

I’m referring to the alleged murder of Ensign Philip Pestaño aboard the BRP Bacolod City in 1995, which has been ruled a suicide by NBI and police investigators and even a private forensics expert.

You see how our justice system works in this country in the two cases.

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I’m not referring to the justices in the Gatdula case, but many appellate court justices were selected by the Judicial Bar Council with probity obviously not among the criteria.

For example, I know of one justice who, when he was still a Metro Manila prosecutor, was notorious for demanding money from litigants in criminal cases.

Not that he is the only one who does it at the Court of Appeals, which some of my lawyer friends and even a court insider refer to as “a den of thieves.”

I’m told that Presiding Justice Andres Reyes is trying to institute reforms in the appellate court but he doesn’t seem to be succeeding.

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The right hand of Raymond Santos, a contractual employee of Universal Robina Corp., got caught in a machine inside its food factory. As a result, his hand was amputated.

Santos works for an employment agency where the Gokongwei-owned firm gets its factory hands, so under the law, the firm is not financially liable, in the case of Santos.

But for God’s sake, can’t the management of Universal Robina Corp. at least have a heart and console with Santos by giving him money for his permanent injury?

This is not the first time this writer has heard how heartless the company is toward its contractual employees.

Many years ago, members of the family of a contractual employee who died inside a Robina factory tank complained that they were not given compensation.

Don’t be surprised if the company goes bankrupt years from now because of bad karma.