Judge asked to continue Palparan trial

CITY OF MALOLOS—Lawyers of the families of two missing University of the Philippines (UP) students have asked Judge Teodora Gonzales to continue hearing the kidnapping and serious illegal detention case involving retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan Jr. and two soldiers that she had been overseeing since 2011.

Julian Oliva of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) went to the Bulacan Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 14 on Monday, carrying a petition urging Gonzales to reconsider her decision to inhibit herself from the case. But neither the judge nor her clerk of court, lawyer Melba David, was in the office.

Gonzales’ staff refused to accept the NUPL’s motion for reconsideration.

Palparan, Lt. Col. Felipe Anotado and S/Sgt. Edgardo Osorio have been accused of kidnapping and serious illegal detention in connection with the disappearance of UP students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño, who were last seen in Hagonoy, Bulacan province, in 2006.

The NUPL was not promptly notified of the motion for inhibition against Gonzales filed by a lawyer of Osorio and was not given a chance to contest it, Oliva said. The group described the motion as “anomalous, dubious and groundless.”

“The judge’s sala did not set it in the calendar despite our full compliance with procedural requirements. Our firm position is that the order is not yet final and, therefore, Judge Gonzales, who has heard the [case] for four years from the very start, is duty-bound to hear us out,” the NUPL motion said.

Susan Garcia, stenographer at RTC Branch 14, said Oliva demanded that the court hear the motion on Monday. She said the court employees could not accept the NUPL document or heed the demand because Palparan’s trial had been transferred to Judge Alexander Tamayo of RTC Branch 15.

Garcia said she accompanied Oliva to Branch 15, which accepted the NUPL’s motion for reconsideration.

Tamayo has ordered the trial to resume on Sept. 16 (not Sept. 10 as earlier reported) to allow him time to take a leave of absence and study the case’s records.

On July 13, Gonzales granted the motion for inhibition filed against her on June 22 by Osorio’s counsel, Bonifacio Alentajan, for her supposed bias against his client. Her decision drew objections from various camps, including Palparan’s lawyers.

“There are cases where the motion for inhibition is clearly borne of personal prejudice, hostility or groundless suspicions. Parties and their counsel at times resort to the tactic of filing motions for inhibition to delay or railroad the proceedings or to find a more sympathetic judge,” the NUPL said.

“The rules teach us that Judge Gonzales still has jurisdiction over our timely motion for reconsideration and cannot pass the burden to the next judge. The public prosecutors from the Department of Justice have in fact joined and conformed to our [motion for reconsideration],” it said.

It said handing the trial over to Tamayo “not only deprived us of the opportunity to assail the dilatory and forum-shopping motion for inhibition, but, as we had feared, has delayed the trial further for at least a month as the new judge happens to coincidentally be on leave.” Carmela Reyes-Estrope, Inquirer Central Luzon