(UPDATED) Warrant of arrest against suspects in journalist’s slay lifted

CMFR/PHILIPPINES – After losing jurisdiction over the case, a judge recalled the arrest warrant he issued against the suspected gunmen in the murder of a radio broadcaster in General Santos City last 12 February 2009. General Santos City is a province approximately 1, 049 kms southeast of Manila.

General Santos City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 36 judge Isaac Alvero Moran revoked the 3 February 2009 warrant of arrest he had issued against Police Inspector Redempto “Boy” Acharon and several other suspects in the killing of Dennis Cuesta after the case (Criminal Case no. 20846) was transferred to another branch of the same court.

Cuesta died on 9 August 2008, five days after an unidentified gunman on a motorcycle shot him along a national highway near a shopping mall in General Santos City. Cuesta, program director and anchor at the local station of Radio Mindanao Network (RMN), was on his way home from an RMN-sponsored outreach program.

Cuesta sustained wounds in the head and near the spinal column after being shot five times with a .45 caliber pistol.

The case was removed from Branch 36 after the RTC Executive Judge ordered on 11 February 2009 the case be sent back to the Office of the Clerk of Court so that it will “be included in the regular raffling of cases on…February 12” and “be considered as a newly filed case.” RTC Executive Judge Oscar Noel Jr. ordered the re-raffling of the case acting on the accused’s “Very Urgent Motion to Recall Case Raffled to Branch 35 (sic)”.

The case is now assigned to RTC Branch 37 under presiding judge Panambulan Mimbisa, who has yet to issue a warrant against Acharon and the other suspects.

Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists (FFFJ) legal counsel Prima Quinsayas said that the Executive Judge’s decision “to re-raffle the case stripped RTC Branch 36 of its jurisdiction over it. Thus, the warrant of arrest cannot be enforced as it was issued by a judge (Moran) from a court with no jurisdiction.”

FFFJ is a coalition of six media organizations formed in 2003 to combat the killing of and other attacks against Filipino journalists. The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) is a founding member of FFFJ and serves as its secretariat.

Moran lifted the arrest warrant against the accused saying it was “to pave way for Hon. Panambulan M. Mimbisa, presiding Judge of RTC-37, to make his own finical and evangelical (sic) findings therein.” He further explained in his order that “…the legal basis of its (arrest warrant) issuance has been virtually stripped” since the case is no longer under
Branch 36.

Acharon’s lawyer Rogelio Garcia filed the motion to re-raffle the case before the Office of the Executive Judge last 10 February 2009. Garcia claimed that a special raffle to give priority to the murder case filed against Acharon took place on 3 February 2009 even without the proper motion.

Despite disputing the claim of Acharon’s counsel that a special raffle had occurred and saying that there was “no cogent reason to disturb the raffling of the case to Branch 36”, Noel nevertheless ordered the re-raffling to give the accused “peace of mind” over the matter.

Gloria Cuesta, widow of the slain broadcaster, told CMFR that she was shocked by the lifting of the arrest warrant against Acharon. “It was unfair…. Are they trying to delay justice by recalling the warrant of arrest?” Cuesta asked.

Lawyer Quinsayas said the prosecutors need to “be vigilant in following up the issuance of the warrant of arrest.” But she is hopeful that “(t)he re-raffling has removed a possible legal loophole, which accused might take advantage of at a later stage in the criminal proceedings…. One less loophole for Acharon’s lawyer to play up is good for our case.”

The suspects in other media murder cases have used legal technicalities to evade arrest and trial.

The arrest of former police officer Guillermo Wapile, convicted gunman in the killing of Edgar Damalerio, in 2002 was delayed because of typographical errors in the warrant of arrest.

In 2008, the prosecution team handling the case against the alleged masterminds in the killing of Marlene Esperat had to re-file the case at the Tacurong City RTC after the suspects questioned the jurisdiction of the Cebu City RTC over the case.

Seventy-seven journalists/media practitioners have been killed in the line of duty in the Philippines since 1986. Only in two cases since 2001 have there been convictions against the alleged gunmen—in the killing of Pagadian journalist Edgar Damalerio and of Sultan Kudarat journalist Marlene Esperat. No mastermind has been convicted.

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