1. I was charged with having ordered the murder of “spies” within
the revolutionary New People’s Army (NPA), which records show
allegedly occurred in 1984-1985 when I was in the custody of the
Philippine Constabulary in Bicutan detention center. Thus it was
impossible for me to have been in Leyte and personally and directly
ordered the alleged executions in the last part of 1984, as alleged by
three key witnesses. I submitted my counter-affidavit on 22 December
2006, stating the fact that I was in detention from 14 January 1976
till 5 May 1985. The provincial prosecutor surreptitiously inserted
into the information a supplemental affidavit of one of the three key
witnesses intended to remedy the flaw in the original affidavits
pertaining to the date that I supposedly arrived in Leyte. The
witness alleged that instead of 1984, I arrived in Leyte in June 1985.
I was not furnished a copy of the supplemental affidavit, thus
depriving me the right to refute the revised statement.
2. On 14 March 2007, my lawyer retrieved court records showing that
a similar multiple murder case had been filed by the same provincial
prosecutor, Rosulo Vivero, involving the same key witness, Zacarias
Piedad, who revised his affidavit in the case against me. That case
was dismissed for lack of evidence. On 27 June 2000, there was an
alleged discovery of a mass grave in Barangay Monterico, Baybay,
Leyte, which became the basis of the filing of murder charges against
alleged leaders of the New People’s Army (NPA) in Leyte.
Interestingly, five (5) of the alleged victims of purging by the
Communist Party of the Philippines/NPA, whose skeletal remains were
allegedly found in Barangay Monterico, Baybay on 27 June 2000, were
the same five (5) of the fifteen (15) alleged victims whose skeletal
remains were also allegedly found in Mount Sapang, Dako, Inopacan,
Leyte on 26 August 2006. Nowhere in the witness’s testimony on the
murder case in 2000 was my name mentioned. Yet the same witness now
cites me as responsible for the murder of the five (5) victims.
It is improbable that the remains of the five (5) alleged
victims could have been in two mass graves, unless the people behind
these two cases simply transferred the remains or recycled the names
of the victims. It bears stressing that Piedad never mentioned my name
in any of his affidavits and statements, which he submitted in the
2000 murder case; he never mentioned my name as among those who
allegedly attended the meetings and participated in the alleged
killings of the alleged victims. In fact, Piedad pointed to a certain
Jaime Soledad, who is also one of the accused in this case, as the one
who allegedly ordered the killing of Juanita Aviola, whereas in the
present case he directly accuses me of that brutal act.
On 10 January 2005, the Regional Trial Court in Leyte issued a
ruling dismissing the 27 June 2000 murder case, stating that:
“A painstaking look into the records of the case will
reveal that none of the elements of the crime of murder was
sufficiently established by the prosecution. There were no
eyewitnesses offered to prove a blow-by-blow account of what actually
transpired. There is no showing that accused killed the victims
sufficiently identified. The mere presentation of witnesses to prove
the conduct of an exhumation will not necessarily prove identity of
the victims. Simply stated, the fact of death and cause of death of
the supposed victims is not ascertained by the prosecution.
“In effect, the prosecution has utterly failed to
establish the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt because no
iota of evidence is present. Under such circumstances the Court will
even venture to pronounce that there is no probable cause to warrant
the indictment of the accused.”
On this basis, the state prosecutor and the judge for the 2006
case should not have found probable cause.
