A just court reversal

A recent Court of Appeals (CA) ruling may yet boost most people’s waning faith in the country’s justice system.

The CA 13th Division on July 19 granted the government’s appeal to nullify the ruling of Angeles City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 60 Judge Eda Dizon who, last year, acquitted Police Supt. Rafael Dumlao III in the brutal murder of Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo.

Jee was abducted by armed men from his house in Pampanga, together with his house help, on Oct. 18, 2016. While the house help was released the following day, Jee was taken to police headquarters at Camp Crame in Quezon City, where he was later found strangled to death inside his car.

The kidnappers, who turned out to be police officers, accused Jee of being involved in the illegal drug trade, but his wife said the men had demanded an P8-million ransom for his release. Despite paying P5 million, she never saw her husband again.

Jee’s wife added that the men, found to be part of the Philippine National Police’s Anti-Illegal Drugs Group, also carted off their personal property, including their car, jewelry, and passports. Investigators traced Yee’s cremated remains to a funeral parlor in Caloocan where his ashes were flushed down a toilet.

Mockery of judicial process

While Dumlao’s associates—Police Chief Master Sergeant Ricky Sta. Isabel and National Bureau of Investigation errand boy Jerry Omlang—drew life terms with an additional 22 to 25 years for kidnapping and carnapping, the RTC judge dismissed the charges against Dumlao, saying that the prosecution had failed to prove the guilt of this alleged mastermind.

After the government questioned the ruling, the CA reversed it, saying that the RTC had “gravely abused its discretion by gross misapprehension of facts when it rendered its joint decision.” Describing the RTC proceedings as a “sham” and an “apparent mockery of the judicial process,” the CA said Dumlao’s acquittal “was a foregone conclusion and in total disregard of the evidence.”

While a judgment of acquittal is usually final and can no longer be appealed by the prosecution to avoid double jeopardy, it may still be challenged without violating the Constitution in cases of grave abuse of discretion.

The CA reversal meted Dumlao a prison term of reclusion perpetua without the eligibility of parole plus P350,000 in damages for the special complex crime of kidnapping with homicide for Jee’s death.

Abusive police officers

The court remedy against judges’ “grave abuse of discretion” should be welcome news for rights activists and lawyers who might want to explore how this might apply to dismissed cases against police and other anti-drug operatives under the previous administration.

Recall how several judges caved to political pressure—recusing themselves, taking early retirement, or rendering decisions that favored government—to keep opposition figures in detention, as in the case of former human rights commissioner and senator Leila de Lima.

One judge even earned the sobriquet “search warrant factory” for her wholesale issuance of warrants to police who were targeting Red-tagged personalities.

At the same time, this case illustrates how difficult it is to prosecute abusive police officers involved in operations during the bloody Duterte drug war. The former president’s constant assurance that he had their back cultivated a sense of impunity among law enforcers, as seen by how brazenly they had kidnapped, extorted, framed for drug allegations, and killed the Korean businessman, and inside police premises at that. The Duterte administration’s “shock and awe” tactics could only abet this appalling lack of accountability that saw the police force sink into criminality amid a cowering, sometimes complicit, court system.

Unclog court dockets

That it took almost seven years for the RTC ruling to be handed down also shows the painfully slow judicial process that is often seen as a denial of justice itself, especially among poor litigants who have no resources to see their cases through.

Hopefully, the Department of Justice’s Circular Nos. 008 and 008-A would remedy such delays, as the agency seeks to unclog court dockets by mandating prosecutors handling municipal and metropolitan trial courts to withdraw cases after careful assessment to determine “if [there exists] a reasonable certainty of conviction based on the evidence [at] hand, availability of witnesses, and continued interest [among] private complainants.”

Shouldn’t erring judges be put under similar scrutiny to determine their culpability in the miscarriage of justice?

For now, Jee’s family can take comfort in knowing that justice has been served, despite the delay and initial setback, and that the criminals behind his ignominious killing got what they deserve. It is now incumbent on the Marcos administration to ensure that other drug suspects summarily killed by Duterte operatives are given the same due, even posthumously.