Man nabbed with Rosal daughter goes to SC

Andrea Rosal. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The man who was arrested along with suspected communist leader Andrea Rosal in March went to the Supreme Court on Friday to challenge his detention and seek a review of the Court of Appeals’ dismissal of his petition.

Nimfa Lanzanas, mother of the detained Edward Lanzanas, filed a petition for review on certiorari before the high court to seek a reversal of the appellate court’s resolution that affirmed her son’s detention and junked her petition for habeas corpus.

Named respondents in the plea were Bernardino Edgar Camus, jail warden at the Metro Manila District Jail’s Security Intensive Care Area, National Bureau of Investigation Director Virgilio Mendez and NBI Anti-Organized Crime Division Chief Rommel Vallejo.

Complications in child birth 

State agents arrested Lanzanas and an eight-month pregnant Rosal in Caloocan City on March 27 for their alleged involvement in murder and kidnapping incidents. She lost her child due to complications when she gave birth while in detention in May.

Rosal is the daughter of the late spokesperson of the communist New People’s Army Gregorio “Ka Roger” Rosal.

Last month, a Pasig court dismissed kidnapping and murder charges against Rosal as it found that she had no participation in the crimes. She, however, remains detained as she faces trial for a separate kidnapping and murder case.

‘Ka Jomel’ on list 

On behalf of her son, Lanzanas initiated the habeas corpus plea—an action that questions the validity of detention—on April 14 before the appellate court.

In her petition, she said her son was not among those on the list of accused in the criminal cases that had led to his arrest. But arresting officers claimed that Edward Lanzanas was the man named “Ka Jomel” on the list.

The Court of Appeals junked the plea on April 15, the day after it was filed. The court upheld this in ruling on Lanzanas’ motion for reconsideration on July 14.

In challenging the appellate court’s decision before the high court, Lanzanas said: “With all due respect, the Court of Appeals decided a question of substance not in accord with law and jurisprudence when it dismissed the petition for habeas corpus and when it denied the motion for reconsideration.”

No valid grounds 

She contended that “there is no valid ground for the arrest and the continued detention of Edward which justifies the issuance of a writ of habeas corpus.”

The petition maintained that Edward, even his pseudonym Rafael de Guzman, was not on the list of accused in the criminal cases used as a basis for his arrest.

“From the outset, there was no basis at all to arrest Edward, and hold him in detention simply because he was not among those charged in the informations on which the warrants of arrest were issued.

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