Lawyers for detained Bayan Muna Rep. Satur C. Ocampo are prepared to
appear before the Supreme Court tomorrow at 1:00 pm at the tribunal’s
session hall at Padre Faura, Manila for oral arguments on the
lawmaker’s petition for certiorari seeking to trash the arrest warrant
and murder charge leveled against him.
“Leading Congressman Ocampo’s counsels tomorrow are veteran human
rights lawyers Romeo T. Capulong, Rachel Pastores and Amylyn Sato, all
of the Public Interest Law Center,” said Bayan Muna General Counsel
and Third Nominee Neri Javier Colmenares.
Colmenares said that Ocampo’s lawyers will also ask the court to defer
transfer of the lawmaker to Leyte pending the resolution of the
petition.
According to Colmenares, Ocampo’s petition has strong and formidable
factual and legal bases. “The Ocampo petition is air-tight and
demolishes the fabricated and illegal murder charge in Hilongos,
Leyte”
“We will not be surprised if Gen. Hermogenes Esperon and Lt. Col.
Bartolome Bacarro will be there because they have been serving as de
facto prosecutors in this case. They have made so many statements
against Satur, infinitely more than the actual prosecutors in this
case,”
Hernandez doctrine
“One of the legal bases for quashing the murder case is the Hernandez
Doctrine which says that all crimes committed in pursuit of rebellion
are absorbed in one rebellion case. Satur has been charged with two
rebellion cases before which were dismissed. There is also a pending
case for rebellion in Makati
No DNA, forensic determination of skeletons
“There is also the absence of a corpus delicti. The authorities failed
to establish the identities of the skeletons and remains unearthed in
the mass grave. No forensic or DNA examination was done by the
authorities, thus offering no conclusive proof to their identities,”
said Colmenares.
