Court issues alias warrant vs. alleged masterminds in Esperat murder

CMFR/PHILIPPINES – A local court ordered the issuance of an alias warrant of arrest against the alleged masterminds in the March 2005 killing of journalist Marlene Esperat last 27 September 2012.  An alias warrant is issued by a court when the original warrant is returned in ten days without being served. The original warrant for the arrest of the accused was issued on 21 October 2008 by the court which was then hearing the case.

CMFR, which serves as the secretariat of the Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists, received a copy of the order only on 6 June 2013 or about nine months from the date indicated on the court order granting the motion for the issuance of an alias warrant. FFFJ legal counsel Prima Jesusa Quinsayas represents the family of Esperat.

In his order, former Regional Trial Court of Makati Branch 138 acting presiding judge Joselito Villarosa granted the prosecutors’ third motion for the issuance of an alias warrant against alleged masterminds Osmena Montaner and Estrella Sabay dated 23 August 2012. Villarosa has been replaced by Judge Josefino Subia. The new judge was supposed to hear the prosecution’s fourth reiterative motion for an alias warrant this June 2013.

“Considering that this Court is now in receipt of a Notice from the Third Division of the Hon. Supreme Court with regard to the denial, with finality, the petitioners’ motion for reconsideration, the Court finds the motion under consideration to be in order and hence, resolves to GRANT the same,” said the court.

On 18 May 2012, the Court put on hold the resolution of the prosecutors’ second request for an alias warrant, pending the finality of the SC’s dismissal of the alleged masterminds’ petition for certiorari and prohibition.

Esperat was killed on 24 March 2005 in front of her children while inside her home in Tacurong City, Sultan Kudarat.  Sultan Kudarat is a province approximately 968  kilometers south of Manila.

According to the testimonies of witnesses, Montañer and Sabay, both of whom work at the Region XII Department of Agriculture office, ordered her killing after she exposed their supposed participation in the alleged P728-million fertilizer scam in which US aid funds for fertilizer were instead used to help finance the election of former Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in 2004.