AFP link to leftist’s abduction ‘hearsay’
By Leila Salaverria, Christian V. Esguerra
Inquirer
His disappearance was senseless and one could not but be rent by the anguish of his wife as she searched in vain for him. But there isn’t a shred of evidence that would link the military or the police to his abduction.
With this, the Court of Appeals dismissed a habeas corpus petition filed by the wife of Leonardo Ancheta who had asked the court to order retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales and Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon to produce Ancheta.
The appellate court lamented that there was nothing else it could do about Ancheta’s “puzzling” disappearance.
Before he retired from the military last year, Palparan and some of the men under him had been linked by human rights groups to the forced disappearance and killings of political activists.
Branded by militants as “the butcher,” Palparan has denied involvement and claimed some of the incidents were the handiwork of other leftist groups as part of internal purges.
A member of the communist-led umbrella group National Democratic Front, Ancheta was last seen by his wife Carmen more than a year ago on June 22, 2006, when he left their house to see relatives in Pampanga province.
Two days later, she received a text message from her husband asking her to meet him outside South Supermarket in Bulacan province. She waited but he never showed up. She tried but failed to reach him on his mobile phone.
In a June 19 decision obtained by the media at the weekend, the appellate court said that should new evidence be found, another petition for habeas corpus may be filed.
Wife’s agony
“It is always heartrending to see agony and anguish in the eyes of a person whose loved one has disappeared without a trace,” the court said.
“And who can remain unaffected, having to listen to the stifled sobs of a soul torn to pieces by loss and desperation? We do understand the plight of petitioner, and commiserate with her. Sadly, for now, that is all this court can do.”
The judicial authorities’ seeming helplessness in resolving cases of forced disappearances in the face of military denials was at the heart of Chief Justice Reynato Puno’s recent proposal for a broad-based summit to discuss how to curb human rights abuses, especially political killings.
Puno said giving an aggrieved party more options if the writ of habeas corpus proved ineffective in locating a missing person could be addressed by such a summit.
Among others, state agents in charge of protecting people could be required to exert all efforts to look for the victim, make periodic reports to the court, and even face sanctions if they failed to meet certain standards required of them, said Puno.
General ready to talk
Also Sunday, one of three generals who recently broke their silence on the issue of political killings told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that he was willing to testify on the role of certain military officers in the killings of suspected communist insurgents and sympathizers.
Speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, the general said he had considered appearing before the Melo Commission, the body formed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to investigate the killings, but he dropped the idea because he suspected no effective measures would come out of the inquiry.
In dismissing the habeas corpus case, the appellate court said it had to accept the statements of Palparan, Gonzales, Esperon and other respondents that they did not have the NDF member in their custody because the evidence presented was “completely hearsay.”
The evidence consisted of Carmen’s statements quoting tricycle drivers who supposedly witnessed Ancheta’s abduction.
The drivers were not presented in court because of their reluctance to be involved.
‘Not a scintilla of evidence’
The appellate court said that even if it understood the tricycle drivers’ reluctance, it still could not accept Carmen’s testimony.
“There is not even a scintilla of evidence which could link respondents to the mysterious disappearance of Ancheta. Thus, their returns of the writ, declaring that Ancheta is not in their custody, must be taken at their face value,” it said.
Also named respondents in the case were Philippine National Police Director General Oscar Calderon, Commodore Leonardo Calderon Jr., Maj. Gen. Bonifacio Ramos, Chief Supt. Jesus Versoza, Chief Supt. Ismael Rafanan and Senior Supt. Romeo Ricardo.
Saying it had no other choice but to turn down the petition, the appellate court said:
“To date, this court has been given no information relative to the whereabouts of Ancheta. Indeed, his disappearance is puzzling and if we may add, senseless. However, as the solicitor general has pointed out, the courts are not the repository of all remedies for every grievance.”
Futile search
In her efforts to locate her husband, Carmen told the court that she also called the wife of Ancheta’s superior, Prudencio Calubid, who said that she and Prudencio dropped Ancheta off in front of the Tuktukan Elementary School.
Carmen said she returned to South Supermarket where she talked to tricycle drivers, who told her Ancheta was accosted by three armed men and forced into a silver Toyota Revo with its license plate covered.
The court in its ruling noted that an investigation by the Karapatan human rights group showed that Ancheta was abducted by members of the military.
Carmen also said that because of her husband’s job with the peace panel, she was convinced that he was taken by military men. She also said Ancheta had said that if he went missing, the military would be behind it.
Calubid also vanished
At the time of his abduction, Ancheta was a staff member of Calubid, a top communist leader and NDF peace consultant who himself was also reported abducted three days after Ancheta went missing.
Ancheta became an activist when he was a high school student before President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in 1972, his brother has been reported as saying. The brother said that during martial law, many of Ancheta’s comrades were arrested, abducted or killed.
Lawyer Romeo Capulong, NDF consultant, said the dismissal of the habeas corpus petition highlighted the “weakness in this legal measure.”
“Through the years the military has learned to circumvent the writ of habeas corpus,” he told the Inquirer. “In the light of the Philippine situation, the petition, by mere denial of the respondent can be dismissed and the court has no other resort.”
Capulong said strengthening the writ of habeas corpus should be one of the major topics in the proposed multisector summit.
Karapatan said its lawyers would file a motion for reconsideration.
Backed by higher-ups
Ruth Cervantes, Karapatan spokesperson, said the court might have failed to consider the fact that Ancheta disappeared at the height of the military’s counterinsurgency operations and in the area where Palparan had jurisdiction.
The anonymous general who disclosed the supposed involvement of some officers in political killings said he was “willing to testify as long as the investigation was credible and would really help stop the killings.”
In a previous interview, he said he had attended a top-level military conference that tackled the killings of suspected communists in Luzon.
He claimed that two other generals, who each commanded big units, spoke openly about killing suspected communists. The two officials supposedly made no distinction between armed communists and leftist personalities and groups, including those involved in parliamentary struggle.
“But they would not have acted without the backing of people from the top,” the Inquirer informant said, referring to Malacañang officials overseeing the government’s anti-insurgency campaign.
The informant said this supposed support from policy-makers apparently encouraged his two fellow generals to “openly” discuss in a 2005 conference how the military could physically eliminate enemies in the communist front. With reports from Jocelyn R. Uy and PDI Research
Yeah, but that doesn’t make Palparan any less a murderer, doesn’t it? It only means the Butcher knows how to cover his tracks well.
There are other cases filed against him. He’ll get nailed yet.
This was expected. What do you get from an extremely corrupted legal system? This is why most citizens with legal cases would rather elevate their case to the Supreme Court where there may be a better chance to get justice.
Skip, yes, this butcher knows how to cover his tracks! But there is no such a thing as perfect crime! The truth will always prevail. He will be nailed sooner or later!
The Court of Appeals did it right in dismissing the case without prejudice and bias. There is no evidence other than the words of the complaining person,( Mrs. Ancheta )that her husband was abducted by the military. I’m not saying it’s over, Mrs. Ancheta will be sadly disappointed with me, I believe that she is telling the truth, but, it need a solid proof.
In a court proceeding, a party without presenting summary judgment evidence may move for summary judgment on the ground that there is no evidence of one or more essential elements of a claim or defense on which an adverse party would have the burden of proof at trial.The motion must state the elements as to which there is no evidence.
The court base their motion to dismissed for the reason that the complainant as having no scintilla evidence.
The Butcher walks free,until someone comes forward with a solid evidence to prosecute the bastards.
CA declares: The SolGen has pointed out that the courts are not the repository of all remedies for EVERY (emphasis mine) grievance.
Aray ! may lahing demonyo yata ang mga ito !!
Aba ! Hindi humihingi ng espesyal na proteksyon sa inyo yung tao, kundi ordinaryong aplikasyon lamang ng batas at katarungan !
Sa mga matinong kalakaran, sa minimum, hihingan ng responsibilidad ng korte ang kapulisan upang ipaliwanag ang pagkawala ng isang mamamayan MALINAW na dinukot ng mga ahente ng estado.
Pero hindi, sa tono ng hungkag na CA, binibigyan pa nito ng responsibilidad ang isang taong dumudulog sa kanya na gumawa ng gawaing imbestigasyon na DAPAT trabaho ng isang tunay ng kapulisan !
Ang sa kay Leonardo Ancheta, Jonas Burgos, at marami pang iba, OBLIGASYON na ng mamamayan ang maniktik at maghanap ng ebidensya para ito ay pakinggan ?
CA ng inang bayan ! Wala kang katapat kung kabulukan sa sistema’t gawain din lang ang paguusapan.
Moral pestilence plagues and reigns in the highest offices of the land, is bad enough.
But when, it infects, and sanity continues to desert, the minds of those who are supposed to uphold the rule of law and justice, where to?
Chaos, yes.
when a puppy runs wild, it is as dangerous as a wolf!
zen2,
matanong ko lamang (pasensiya na’t tanga, ano ba ‘yang CA na ‘yan?
‘yan ba ‘yung CORRUPT ALLIANCE?
nagtatanong lang, hane?
matanong ko lamang (pasensiya na’t tanga), ano ba ‘yang CA na ‘yan?
Another case of injustice! Pwe!
Problem is that police force in the Philippines is rendered useless. Over here, a case cannot indicted in court without enough evidence, and looking for evidences becomes the imperative duty of the police. Kasi dito, no one is brought to court unless he is proven guilty. The court’s responsibility is to see to it that justice is upheld and determine the corrigibility or incorrigibility of a guilty accused. That is why over here we still have capital punishment done by hanging!!!
Heroism is going out of the way to attain an extraordinary end. But just a shade away is notoriety, by executing a tacit order or what the soldier thinks the commander wants it done and succeeded. No hard copies of it. A commander is a hero to his C-in-C but notorious to the trampled.
How insensitive. A decision like this, to an ordinary mind like mine who grew up in an era of “justice when equal scales she holds is blind” hindi ko talagang maintidihan. Sigue na nga- doon na lang ako manood ng laban sa tennis courts at basketball courts.
Skip: Yeah, but that doesn’t make Palparan any less a murderer, doesn’t it? It only means the Butcher knows how to cover his tracks well.
*****
But even if he covers his tracks well, Skip, the blood of the victims cry from the ground sabi nga. Question right now is for how long will Filipinos tolerate this?
Frankly, as one who has worked for the police and courts in Japan, I find these unsolved oozing cases as oozing in inefficiency, incompetence and complete disregard for law and justice by the very same people who have been entrusted with upholding the law. I can only shake my head in disgust and blog in forums like this to share my expertise even in solving cases where precious human lives are wasted.
Worse is when these crimes are perpetrated by people in the agencies entrusted with the responsibilities and duties to stop them! This, likewise, I find incredibly unbelievable and cannot compare the police there with our very efficient Japanese police, which BTW is patterned after that of Scotland Yard, not run by the military but by civil servants commissioned to keep law and order.
Palparan may be able to escape prosecution now, but you can bet your bottom dollar, his punishment on Judgment Day will be something he would be really sorry for but there will be no forgiveness. Shedding innocent blood, you know, is a sin against the Holy Ghost, and it is beyond forgiveness. Even the unano cannot escape final judgment for it.
And so, I pray, “May they rot in hell!”
ystakei:
Just to add a comment about professional police procedure when arrested, you are first brought before the ‘Station Officer’ where the arresting officer relates orally in the presence of the arrested person, the brief fact of the evidence and the power of arrest (laid down by parliment) used. If the evidence is lacking or no power of arrest, it all ends there. In fairness we shouldn’t blame the PNP it is not before time that we direct taxes to proper training of the PNP instead of spending so much of the tax spending on the likes of Assperon and Palparan the ‘Butcher’.
Confine AFP to their barracks to safeguard the public.
My comment relates to UK police,
Zen2: “…OBLIGASYON na ng mamamayan ang maniktik at maghanap ng ebidensya para ito ay pakinggan?”
Tama ka dyan, p’re. Sabi nga ng kapitbahay kong namayapang Tinyente Cayetano Cedilla na top investigator noon sa Pasay, habang pinagagalitan ang isang pulis niya, “Para saan pang naging imbestigador ka kung umaasa ka lang sa ebidensiya ng nagrereklamo, kung gusto mo, yung suweldo mo, ibibigay ko na lang sa kung sinong magbibigay ng ebidansiya sa mga kaso mo.” Hanggang sa nagretiro at namatay si Mang Tano, nagtrabaho siya bilang Investigation Consultant ng Pasay Police dahil ang mga sumunod sa kanya ay puro walang kwenta na.
Sigurado akong ang ganyang sitwasyon ay hindi naiiba sa buong bansa. Hindi lang ebidensiya, pati papel, folder, gasolina, pang-xerox, pangkain, pati panigarilyo sa mga taumbayan pa kinukuha. Nakakahiya mang aminin, bulok at walang kapaga-pagasa akong nakikitang mabuti sa kapulisan maging sa kasundaluhan ngayon. Kundi bugok, walang bayag. Iilan lang ang Trillanes sa daanlibong naka-uniporme.
Mas marami ang bulok kaysa matino.
This is UNBELIEVABLE! Just unbelievable…
What a difference indeed. Over where I am based and a national of, any such case as this will call for the removal of the head of the state and/or his/her immediate deputies.
Just the other day, the Minister of Defense resigned over what he said re the A-bombing by the US. Abe is assigning a woman but it will not be enough. People here may try booting him out sooner than he has hoped for. Thanks to our more vigilant media, etc.
Sa Pilipinas kasi nabibili ang media. They should actually make the national press clubs there really powerful—hindi puede ang mga sipsip!