Esperat case transferred to Cebu

The Supreme Court approved the transfer of the trial of crusading journalist Marlene Esperat slay case to Cebu City last month.

Acting upon the request of the Esperat family and the Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists, Inc. (FFFJ), the High Court granted the petition to move the trial from the victim’s hometown of Tacurong to the more neutral and relatively safer Cebu City, in a resolution dated 23 November 2005.

It is not yet determined what local court will take over the trial, which is perhaps one of the most followed among slain journalist cases in the country. Last 29 November, the much-touted trial of Pagadian City journalist Edgar Damalerio’s killer, ex-cop Guillermo Wapile, came to a positive end when a Cebu City court sentenced the said culprit to life imprisonment.

Like the Esperat case, Damalerio’s case was previously tried (and stalled for about three years) in Mindanao (Pagadian City), and eventually transferred last February to Cebu City, where it was resolved in just seven months.

“The prosecution will now be able to try the case without our witnesses having to worry for their safety,” said Esperat’s lawyer, Nena Santos, as quoted by Manila-based The Sunday Times.

Last July, the FFFJ in behalf of Esperat’s husband, George, requested the Supreme Court to reassign the case to a Cebu City court, for fears of harassment and threats towards the witnesses in the case.

Earlier, three of the four suspects in the killing of Esperat pleaded guilty, although all of them are willing to testify in court. In fact, one of the accused, military intelligence officer Rowie Barua, has turned state witness and is now under the custody of the government’s Witness Protection Program.

Barua earlier identified Department of Agriculture (DA) officials Osmeña Montaner and Estrella Sabay as the masterminds behind the Esperat’s slay. Murder charges were filed against the two, but the Tacurong City regional trial court judge, Francis Palmones, dismissed the cases against them last 31 August.

Esperat was brutally gunned down in front of her children 24 March this year. She was the second work-related media casualty in 2005. ###

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