Another Makati judge asked to inhibit self from rebellion case

Two Makati judges were asked by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to inhibit themselves from hearing two separate high-profile cases after they ruled against the government.

Senior State Prosecutor Emmanuel Velasco accused Judge Jenny Delorino of Makati City regional trial court branch 137 of "partiality" after she rejected a DOJ motion to amend the rebellion charges against Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran and renegade Army 1Lt. Lawrence San Juan to include former senator Gregorio Honasan and the so-called "Batasan 5" — Representatives Satur Ocampo, Teodoro Casiño and Joel Virador of Bayan Muna, Liza Maza of Gabriela and Rafael Mariano of Anakpawis.

"The prosecution most respectfully moves for the inhibition of the Honorable Presiding Judge in the instant case on the ground that her actions and ruling manifested partiality in favor of the accused," he said.

Velasco said Delorino "hastily decided" in dismissing the prosecution’s motion to admit amended information and granted the omnibus motion to strike out amended information filed by the accused last May 4.

"After oral arguments, the Honorable Presiding Judge manifested that she will resolve said motion that same afternoon," he said.

"The hearing started at 10 in the morning and ended at 12:30 in the afternoon. At around 5:30 in the afternoon on that same day the prosecution heard from the news that the Honorable Presiding Judge issued a resolution granting the omnibus motion to strike out amended information."

Velasco accused Delorino of giving media interviews and discussing the resolution before the prosecution had even received an official copy.

"Publicity undermines the dignity and impartiality of a judge," he said.

"The Prosecution was taken aback at the undue haste in resolving the subject motion considering that it only submitted its additional supporting documents minutes before the hearing."

Velasco said the judge "relied heavily" on the arguments raised by the accused and "paid scant attention" to the prosecution’s arguments.

"In the instant case, while the subject motion was resolved with dispatch, it was not done so with impartiality," he said.

In denying the DOJ’s motion to include Honasan and the Batasan 5 in the rebellion charges, Delorino ruled the information was not being amended, but that the original was "apparently" being replaced.

"At first sight, one is momentarily taken aback by the sheer length of the so-called ‘amended information,’" she said.

"From the original information consisting of one solitary paragraph contained in two pages, it ballooned to 13 extended paragraphs in 15 pages.

"From only two named defendants, the amended information now named 48, a large majority of whom are at large with addresses unknown." 

Delorino said on closer perusal, one’s attention is drawn to the fact that all 13 extended paragraphs are underscored, except for the words "hereby accuse, Lawrence San Juan, Crispin Bertiz Beltran" in the first paragraph.

Delorino said apart from these eight words, nothing was left of the original information which named Beltran and San Juan as the only respondents.

The amended information recounts a protracted chain of events and acts constituting the crime of rebellion allegedly committed by all 48 accused, who conspired as "promoters, maintainers or heads," from 1968 to 2006, or a period spanning almost four decades, she added.

Delorino said the amended information also claims that the events occurred in many parts of the country involving an untold number of people, either as participants, perpetrators or as victims.

"Evidently, none of these specific allegations appeared in the original information," she said.

"All these palpable observations have led this court to conclude that this ‘amended information’ is not what it purports to be," she said.

In the second case, the DOJ asked Judge Benjamin Pozon of Makati regional trial court Branch 139 to stop from resolving the motion for reconsideration after he dismissed the illegal detention case against former National Bureau of Investigation deputy director for intelligence Samuel Ong.

"It is prayed that Judge Benjamin Pozon inhibit himself from further trying the case and or from resolving the motion for reconsideration," read the motion.

The DOJ accused Pozon of grave abuse of discretion, bias and prejudice against the people and in favor of the accused.

In dismissing the case against Ong, Pozon ruled that the DOJ’s investigating team gave "little importance" to affidavits favorable to Ong, especially one executed by Catholic bishop Teodoro Bacani.

In his affidavit, Bacani said Ong, after exposing the so-called "Mother of all Tapes," did not detain military intelligence agent T/Sgt. Vidal Doble at the San Carlos Seminary in Guadalupe, Makati last year.

The two motions for inhibition against Delorino and Pozon are expected to be heard on Friday, May 12.

Pozon, who is also hearing the case against four US Marines accused of raping a 22-year-old Filipina at Subic Bay Freeport last year, also dismissed the DOJ’s motion to downgrade the charges against the three accused from principal to accessory.