Lawyers ask judge to return to trial of Palparan et al.

Private prosecutors representing the families of missing University of the Philippines students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño have urged a judge to rethink her inhibition from the case, saying she was the best person to continue the trial having handled it the past four years.

The legal team from the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) on Friday filed a motion asking Bulacan Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 14 Judge Teodora Gonzales to reconsider her decision to inhibit herself after a defense lawyer accused her of partiality.

They asked the judge to continue to preside the trial of retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan and three other military officers on charges of kidnapping and serious illegal detention which stemmed from the 2006 disappearance of the two students.

“The presiding judge has already conducted the proceedings in these cases for four years. Having conducted the proceedings from the beginning, the presiding judge has heard the testimonies of all the witnesses, observed their demeanor when they testified, and has seen and examined all the evidence presented,” read the motion.

“Hence, the current presiding judge is in the best position to rule and issue fair and just orders or decisions,” the NUPL said in its five-page plea.

Gonzales inhibited herself from the case on July 13, granting the motion of Staff Sgt. Edgardo Osorio, one of Palparan’s coaccused in the case. The case has been re-raffled to Bulacan RTC Branch 15 Judge Alexander Tamayo.

In the inhibition plea, Osorio, through lawyer Bonifacio Alentajan, said the judge should inhibit because of her perceived partiality towards the prosecution, asserting that she “has lost the cold neutrality of an impartial judge.”

Gonzales denied the allegation of bias, but still inhibited herself “to preserve and promote public confidence in the integrity of the judiciary.”

But the NUPL said Osorio’s charges against the judge were “baseless and hollow.”