Alleged Masterminds Oppose Issuance of Alias Warrant

The alleged masterminds in the killing of journalist Marlene Esperat opposed the prosecution’s motion for the issuance of an alias warrant last 19 April 2012.

An alias warrant may be re-issued by the court if the original is returned in ten days without being served.

The counsel of accused masterminds Osmeña Montañer and Estrella Sabay asked  Branch 138 of the Makati Regional Trial Court  to deny the prosecution’s request pending the resolution of their motion for reconsideration (MR) of the Supreme Court’s (SC) 5 March 2012 resolution which upheld the appellate court’s denial of their petition to drop the murder charges against them.

During the 20 April 2012 hearing, Branch 138 acting judge Joselito Villarosa said he will issue a resolution on the prosecution’s request by 27 April 2012.

In its 5 March 2012 resolution, the SC stated that the alleged masterminds had failed to show the Court of Appeals’ (CA) error in denying their petition for certiorari.

The SC Third Division stated that “the previous dismissal of the Information for murder against them in Criminal Case No. 2568 for lack of probable cause did not preclude the reinvestigation of the case and the filing of a new Information in court if probable cause is found to exist.”

Marlene Esperat, a columnist and a blocktimer at a local radio station in Tacurong, Sultan Kudarat, was killed on 24 March 2005. Her murder was linked to the P728 million Department of Agriculture (DA) fertilizer fund scandal during the 2004 elections involving former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Montañer and Sabay, who work at the Region XII DA office, had been linked by Esperat to the scandal. They were accused of planning the Esperat murder and hiring gunman Gerry Cabayag, and accomplices Estanislao Bismanos and Randy Grecia. The alleged masterminds are still at large while the Cabayag, Bismanos and Grecia were convicted last October 2006.