WINONA MAE M.

NAVE LEGAL WRITING A

Facts of the Case ABADILLA MURDER CASE: This case is about the murder of Rolando Abadilla, a police colonel during Marcos regime, at 8:30 on June 13, 1996 at the Katipunan Avenue, Quezon City. Originally, there were seven accused charged in this case. On August 11, 1999, the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Quezon City acquitted two of them and convicted the five others, now collectively known as the Abadilla Five. They are Lenido Lumanog, Augusto Santos, Senior Police Officer 2 (SPO2) Cesar Fortuna, Rameses de Jesus and Joel de Jesus. Their original conviction was capital punishment but their sentence was modified to life imprisonment when the Death Penalty was abolished. There was only one vital witness for the prosecution, Freddie Alejo. It was Alejo who had "positively identified Joel and Lorenzo (delos Santos) during a police line-up. Alejo confirmed these two (2) as the persons he saw from his guard post walking to and fro before the shooting incident". The RTC, however, acquitted Delos Santos despite being "positively identified" also by Alejo as one of those who was present at the crime scene. Alejo's testimonies in open court were also not consistent to what he had said to the police investigators immediately after the murder. In open court, he already said there were six, not four assailants; that it was two other gunmen, not one of the four present close to the car who pointed the gun at him; and he was not nervous but rather had the opportunity to see the faces of all the assailants facing him all at the same time. (fn: 3) Apart from Alejo, earlier there was another witness, Merlito Herbas. Herbas and Alejo worked for the Abadillas as security guards. Like Alejo, Herbas also at first instance identified Joel de Jesus as one of the gunmen during a police line-up but later withdraw his statement in open court. The court rejected his testimony because he was a 'disgruntled witness'. Herbas had testified for the defence instead of the prosecution when the Abadilla "did not fulfil his promise to give him (Herbas) exactly the same salary he was receiving" and when he was "told that he would no longer be presented as witness because the testimony of Alejo would be sufficient". The prosecution did not present him as their witness during the trial. Like Herbas, court records had also shown that Alejo has been receiving money and free accommodation from the Abadillas. For example, the prosecutor, instead of admitting Alejo to the Witness Protection Programme (WPP) during trial, rather "chose instead to allow the Abadillas, who had an interest in Alejo's testimony, to make him dependent on them for his livelihood at least for the duration of the trial of the case". The prosecutors, the RTC and the CA have been made aware of this fact by the defense. Similar to the Vizconde case, the five accused made a defence of alibi claiming that they were somewhere else on June 13, 1996 when the murder of Abadilla happened. Their claims were corroborated by witnesses who are disinterested parties, their relatives and friends and documentary evidence. In their alibis, Joel de Jesus claimed he was driving his passenger tricycle in Fairview, Quezon City the whole day; for SPO2 Cesar Fortuna, he was at the Camp Crame (headquarters of the Philippine National Police (PNP)) for an official business and his presence was also corroborated by two police officials whom he had transacted business with; for Augusto Santos, he was at the Jose Fabella Hospital in Sta. Cruz, Manila accompanying his brother-in-law, Jonas Padel Ayhon, whose wife had just given birth; and Rameses de Jesus and Lenido Lumanog they had just left Manila for Mabalacat, Pampanga where they stayed until the evening of June 14. Conclusion The AHRC (Asian Human Rights Commission)( urges the SC to thoroughly review the pending final appeal of the accused in the Abadilla case. It would be a serious miscarriage of justice and a demonstrattion of the inequality before the law should jurisprudence not be applied equally. in the accused in the Abadilla murder case also deserve equal protection of the law. Equal protection of the law is fundamental in the country's Constitution.