The Manila Times

PH criminal justice system marred by fugitive tradition

YEN MAKABENTA

IN pointing out to the

International Criminal Court (ICC) the feats and operation of our criminal justice system and judiciary, it is prudent to also keep in mind that the country also has a fugitive tradition lodged in its craw.

For every felon who has been successfully prosecuted and sentenced by the system, there may also be one or more characters who have run away from the clutches of the law.

When our government strains to defend former president Rodrigo Duterte from an ICC investigation of drug war killings, the court could fairly point out how suspended Rep. Arnulfo Teves Jr. today continues to defy the government by refusing to return home from a foreign trip to face the charges imputed against him in the killing of his political rival, Gov. Roel Degamo of Negros Oriental on March 4.

Strictly speaking, the congressman is still only a person of interest or suspect in the killing of the Negros governor, which was carried out in brazen and brutal fashion in broad daylight.

According to the police report, gunmen in military uniforms fatally shot the governor and five civilians while he was distributing aid to beneficiaries of the conditional cash transfer program in his home in the town of Pamplona.

At least six men armed with assault rifles and wearing militarystyle camouflage and bulletproof vests alighted from three SUVs and opened fire on Degamo, hitting him and five other people in front of his residence. The province has a history of violent political rivalries.

Pamplona Mayor Janice Degamo, the wife of the slain governor, said in a Facebook video that the five villagers also died.

She demanded justice, and said her husband “did not deserve that kind of death. He was serving constituents on a Saturday along with his department heads.”

In the ongoing investigation, Justice Secretary Juanito Remulla claims that there are 10 witnesses linking Congressman Teves to the Degamo killing

The statements of the 10 witnesses who are suspects in the Degamo killing implicated Representative Teves, Remulla said.

“It’s there in the statements,” he said. “The statements that were issued have so far pointed to the certain involvement on his part, nine or 10 statements that we have ... ten.”

Remulla said the statements in their hands could be enough, “depending on the requirement of the panel of prosecutors.”

The 10 suspects are now in the custody of the National Bureau of Investigation.

Remulla also clarified his earlier statement branding Teves a fugitive.

“There was a question: ‘is he a fugitive?’ I said not yet, unless he surrenders ... [but] that’s where it is leading if he does not submit to the jurisdiction of the court. If there is a warrant of arrest and you do not surrender, you become a fugitive [from] justice,” he said.

But he said Teves was classified as “a person wanted for questioning.”

“He has a lot of explaining to do. He’s the subject of a summons ... but the fact that he does not want to be served by the service of summons means that he’s evading jurisdictional matters,” he said.

Justice department spokesman Mico Clavano, in a statement earlier released by the Office of the President, said that the government was set to ask the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) to issue a “blue notice” against the suspects in the killing of Degamo.

Color-coded notices are international requests for cooperation or alerts allowing police in member countries to share critical crime-related information issued by the Interpol at the request of a member country.

Fugitive tradition

When Congressman Teves decided against returning home to face the accusations, did he perhaps remember how certain personages have successfully eluded arrest and decided to copy them?

There is a fugitive streak that underlies and shadows the record of law enforcement in the country. A number of accused in famous cases succeeded in defying the authorities.

High on the list of the defiant ones is former senator Panfilo Lacson who eluded for years the government’s pursuit of him in connection with the Corbito-Dacer murder case.

Prominent also is the case of retired general Jovito Palparan who went into hiding after conviction.

Likewise, there is also the case of another Filipino exile in the United States, a former Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman.

Lacson’s claim

Lacson declares to this day, “I never evaded our criminal justice system.”

He rails against accusations that he ran away from the law or made a mockery of it when he left the country in 2010, about a month before a warrant for his arrest on charges filed by the Arroyo government could be served.

He said: “I did not break any law. There was a jurisprudence in which an accused with a warrant of arrest is allowed to file pleadings. When I left, there was no warrant of arrest yet. I did not violate any law because there was no hold departure order against me.”

Lacson said he followed the advice of his lawyer for him to remain in self-exile at the time, considering the hostile political environment, and because there was already a Supreme Court ruling that allowed an accused to make himself scarce while his case goes on trial.

With his lawyer representing him during court proceedings, Lacson said he was able to defend himself within the criminal justice system of the country. He was treated virtually as an outlaw with his freedom of movement restricted, but he was not confined to the four walls of prison.

Lacson was eventually exonerated from the charges after the Court of Appeals (CA) found the state witnesses presented by the prosecution unreliable on top of the lack of substantial and even circumstantial evidence against him.

Lacson returned to the country in 2011 after the Supreme Court upheld the CA ruling. He accepted the apologies of those who he said tried to damage his reputation and also stated in a media interview that he had also forgiven former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Palparan case

Also prominent in the fugitive tradition is the case of retired Army Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan.

Palparan and two others were convicted for the highly publicized enforced disappearance of two female University of the Philippines student activists, Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan, in 2006.

The court sentenced Palparan, LtCol. Felipe Anotado and SSg. Edgardo Osorio to life imprisonment for the kidnapping and illegal detention of Empeño and Cadapan.

Following the verdict, Palaparan went into hiding.

Palparan was for years a controversial figure in the military’s anticommunist campaign. He was known as “The Butcher” because of the bloodshed that ensued wherever he was assigned. He was originally charged in 2011 for the abduction of Cadapan and Empeño, but he evaded authorities for years and was arrested only in 2014.

Palparan and his co-accused were convicted on the testimony of two witnesses, one of whom claimed to have seen the general with the two student activists inside a military camp in Bulacan province where the witness had also been detained for being a suspected communist rebel. Another witness also testified in court that he had seen the abduction of the two women by Sergeant Osorio and other armed men. In its decision, the court said the two witnesses’ testimony was “persuasive and unassailable proof that the three accused in complicity with each other committed the crimes imputed against them.”

A year or so ago, Palparan surprisingly came out of hiding, presumably to continue living in normal society. He was probably encouraged by the sight of numerous retired military officers whom President Duterte favored for appointment in his government. He is now serving out his sentence at the New Bilibid Prison.

Fugitives from justice have enjoyed a measure of celebrity in the cinema. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were fugitives from justice (they ran away to avoid being tried in court).

“The Fugitive,” starring Harrison Ford, is one of the biggest box-office hits in history.

The fugitive story never grows old.

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2023-04-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-04-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://manilatimes.pressreader.com/article/281552295122108

The Manila Times