Justice served as Sandigan drops ‘Morong 43’ raps: AFP

FILE: Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Spokesperson, Marine Brig. Gen. Edgard Arevalo in Quezon City on Monday (May 6, 2019). (PNA photo by Joey O. Razon)

MANILA — Justice is served.

This was how Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesperson, Marine Brig. Gen. Edgard Arevalo, described the Sandiganbayan 7th Division’s dismissal of the torture and preventing access to lawyers charges filed by the so-called “Morong 43” against seven ranking military and police officers in 2010.

“While we are yet to obtain a copy of the Sandiganbayan decision and learned about it only from news reports, the AFP is elated that justice is served for the respondent military (and police) officers,” he said in a message to the Philippine News Agency Monday.

“The AFP hails this verdict of the Sandiganbayan’s Seventh Division that clears Generals (now retired) Jorge Segovia, Aurelio Baladad, and Joselito Reyes; and Brigadier General Cristobal Zaragoza from the charges of torture and preventing access to lawyers for the 43 arrested individuals who represented themselves as health workers arrested in a resort compound in Morong, Rizal in 2010 on information that they were into bomb-making training,” he added.

Named as respondents, in this case, are police officers Marion Balonglong, Allan Nobleza, and Jovily Cabading.

Also, the Sandiganbayan decision debunked the claim of the prosecution that the lawyers for the persons arrested were prevented from talking to their clients, who also happen to be the complainants in the case.

Arevalo added that the dismissal of the case against named three retired and lone active generals further goes to show that the AFP abides by the mandates of the Bill of Rights.

“Further, the ruling implies that the allegations are unfounded even as we maintain that the charges are meant to legally harass security forces who were in a legitimate combat and law enforcement operation.

The charges of torture were dropped and the hold departure orders against the accused were lifted,” he pointed out. The complainants, thru counsels, failed to prove in their own testimonies their charges against the accused military officer thereby rendering a decision adverse to the complainant, Arevalo stressed.

“We enjoin NUPL (National Union of People’s Lawyers) President Edre Olalia to respect the decision of the court and avail of legal remedies available,” the AFP spokesperson concluded.

On Friday, the anti-graft court’s 7th Division cleared the police and military officials as it granted their demurrer to evidence.

A demurrer to evidence is a document that seeks to dismiss outright a case due to insufficiency of evidence presented by the prosecution.

Each of the seven officials was charged with eight counts of violation of Republic Act 7438 or the Rights of Persons Arrested, Detained or Under Custodial Investigation.

In a 39-page ruling penned by Associate Justice Zaldy Trespasses and concurred by Associate Justices Maria Theresa Dolores Gomez Estoesta and Georgina Hidalgo, the court held that the prosecution failed to prove that the health workers had a lawyer at the time of their arrest.

The case stemmed from the military and police officials’ act of turning away private lawyers from the NUPL who tried to talk to the “Morong 43” members at the time of their detention.

In siding with the police and military officials, the court said the NUPL members were not lawyers whom the health workers chose to represent them in the case.

The “Morong 43” members were detained for 10 months after they were arrested for allegedly holding an explosives training at a house in Morong, Rizal.

In December 2010, the Department of Justice dropped the criminal charges against the “Morong 43”