Journalists slam Cebu court decision to stop trial of Esperat slay ‘brains’

A NETWORK of national media organizations on Wednesday assailed on the decision of the Cebu Court of Appeals to indefinitely stop the prosecution of the suspected masterminds in the 2005 murder of journalist Marlene Esperat in Sultan Kudarat, southern Philippines.

The Cebu appellate court granted on May 14 an indefinite preliminary injunction preventing Cebu Regional Trial Court Branch 7 Judge Simeon Dumdum Jr. from hearing the case against Osmeña Montañer and Estrella Sabay, the alleged brains behind the killing of Esperat.

Associate Justice Francisco Acosta penned the order, and Associate Justices Amy Lazaro-Javier and Florito Macalino concurred. They said the Cebu RTC did not have jurisdiction over the murder case against Montañer and Sabay, supposedly because the crime was committed in Tacurong City, not in Cebu.

In a statement, the Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists (FFFJ) called the court’s decision a setback in the battle against impunity. FFFJ is composed of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, Center for Community Journalism and Development, Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas, Philippine Press Institute, US-based Philippine News and the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism.

“The Esperat case is particularly important in dismantling the culture of impunity that has so far claimed the lives of 34 journalists since 2001 while in the line of duty,” the FFFJ pointed out. “The trial of the suspected masterminds alone will send a signal to the killers of journalists that the judicial system is finally working.”

Esperat, publisher and columnist of Sultan Kudarat newspaper The Midland Review, radio commentator and anti-graft crusader, was gunned down on March 24, 2005 while having supper with her children at their home in Purok Ilang-Ilang, Barangay New Isabela, Tacurong City, Sultan Kudarat.

Apparently as a consequence of having filed graft cases against ranking public officers, Esperat became a target of assassination attempts, including a grenade attack on her house in 2003 and an attempted abduction in 2002.

FFFJ noted that the appellate court’s injunction on the RTC came after granting on March 25 a 60-day temporary restraining order and suspending the service of the warrants of arrest against suspected masterminds Montaner and Sabay last Feb. 4.

In granting the injunction, the Cebu CA cited an April 3 comment by the Office of the Solicitor General, asserting that Montaner and Sabay were not covered by an earlier Supreme Court ruling transferring the venue of the trial of the case from Tacurong to Cebu.

Updating members of the media on the Esperat case during a journalism forum sponsored by PPI, lawyer Joel Butuyan noted what looked like an anomalous situation where the OSG, which should have taken the side of Esperat in the appeals court after taking over the case from state prosecutors, took the position of the alleged masterminds.

With the CA injunction, Butuyan said the case could “sleep the sleep of the dead” unless media organizations and other groups continue to put pressure for the speedy resolution of the case. He noted that the court’s injunction was for an “indefinite” period.

Butuyan said the Supreme Court needs to issue a resolution to declare that the original order in 2005 for the transfer of the venue of the case from Tacurong to Cebu applies equally to the killers who were convicted in October 2006 as well as to the alleged masterminds who had been pinpointed by one of the killers, so that the trial could proceed.

In 2005, the Supreme Court transferred the venue of the case of Esperat’s killers to Cebu on the ground that the suspects’ influence in Tacurong could affect the outcome of the case.

State prosecutor Llena Ipong-Avila had said the prosecution will seek a reversal of the appellate court’s injunction within the 20-day deadline.

One of the suspected assassins, former Army Sergeant Rowie Barua had turned witness, pointing to Montañer and Sabay as the brains behind Esperat’s murder. Montañer, former finance officer of the Department of Agriculture in Region 12, and Sabay, the regional accountant, were among the public officers involved in graft and corruption cases that Esperat had unearthed and exposed.

Montañer and Sabay allegedly drew up the plan to permanently silence Esperat. The gunman, Estanislao Bismanos, along with Randy Grecia (co-conspirator) and Gerry Cabayag (lookout) were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by Cebu City RTC Judge Eric Menchavez on October 6, 2006.

In a briefing paper provided by the CMFR, lawyer Nena Santos described the Esperat case to have “a very promising outcome” because of the “clear identification of the masterminds and full cooperation from the witnesses.”

Santos is the private counsel for the prosecution. CMFR serves as secretariat to the FFFJ that initiated the petition to transfer the case to Cebu in response to security concerns of the witnesses and considering the clout of the accused that could unduly influence the outcome of the case if it is heard in Tacurong.

“With the strong testimonies of suspect-turned-state witness Barua, the case against alleged masterminds Montañer and Sabay remains string,” the CMFR briefer said. “The case, however, is not only a press freedom issue,” it averred, noting that “Montañer’s and Sabay’s connection in the killing of Esperat and the cases left by the journalist, could pave the way for a deeper scrutiny on the alleged massive corruption inside the Department of Agriculture up to the highest posts.”

“Based on the exposes made and cases filed by Esperat in the Ombudsman, the corruption inside the DA not only involves the two suspected slay masterminds, but also several high ranking national officials, allegedly also including embattled former DA undersecretary Jocelyn ‘Jocjoc’ Bolante and former National Food Authority administrator and now DA Secretary Arthur Yap, in connection with the P1.1-billion fertilizer scam,” the further stated.

Melinda Quintos-de Jesus, CMFR executive director, lamented that legal technicalities are being used by some people to get away with murder.