Remembering Marlene Esperat
A Press Statement of the Esperat family
on the 5th Death Anniversary of journalist Marlene Esperat
24 March 2010
IT HAS been five years since journalist Marlene Esperat was killed.
Five years have not made it any easier to accept her death. While the conviction of her gunmen somewhat assuages the pain and indignation at the impudent manner in which she was killed (in the middle of dinner with her children on a Maundy Thursday), the knowledge that those who ordered her death remain free chips away at what little faith is left in the judicial system.
About two weeks after the November 23 Maguindanao massacre, in the midst of grief and outrage for the brutal killings of more than 30 media personnel in said incident, the Court of Appeals (CA) Cagayan de Oro pulled off another “killing” by issuing a writ of preliminary injunction sought by Osmeña Montañer and Estrella Sabay, the accused masterminds in the murder case of Esperat.
Result: the criminal case and service of the warrant of arrest against the two accused are ordered suspended pending final resolution of the petition for certiorari still pending before said CA.
Adding insult to injury, the two accused are now reporting for work in the Department of Agriculture (DA) regional office in Sultan Kudarat… the very same office in which Esperat exposed corruption; the same exposé that would be the apparent reason she was ordered killed.
In granting said injunction, the appellate court mentioned that the Solicitor General did not file a comment (in truth, the Office of the Solicitor General had asked for extension of time to file its comment, which it eventually did), blithely refusing to give merit to the comment filed, through counsel, by Esperat’s family.
Worse, the CA resolution reeks of injustice as it accorded judicial relief to the two accused who have never allowed themselves to be placed under the jurisdiction of the courts and are, in fact, fugitives from the law. No less than three warrants of arrest have been issued against them, each one by a different court. Montañer and Sabay each carries a reward of P500,000 for information that would lead to their capture.
It is extreme irony for the appellate court to be giving protection to Montañer and Sabay who have very little regard for the judicial process and zero respect for the criminal justice system.
At a time when press freedom is under assault and the integrity of the judiciary under fire, the last thing we need is an appellate court that issues a preliminary injunction, suspends the criminal proceedings for the murder of a journalist killed in front of her children, and cites as one of its grounds: the Solicitor General did not file a comment.
With the petition for certiorari yet to be resolved, the CA Cagayan de Oro is called upon to do so swiftly.
And, hopefully, justly…
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