By EUGENE ADIONG
BACOLOD City — To prevent “undue influence” over the case, the Supreme Court Second Division granted a petition to transfer the murder case in connection with the death of Kabankalan City Judge Henry Arles to Quezon City.
The judge’s son, Philip Arles, filed the petition on June 3 last year.
He wanted Criminal Case No. 2013-5986 moved from a regional trial court (RTC) in Kabankalan to any RTC in Metro Manila.
Accused in shooting to death Judge Arles were Jessie Daguia, Alejando Capunong, Eddie Fortunado, Marvin Salve, Gerald Tabujara, and Rustom Puro, all members of Revolutionary Proletarian Army–Alex Boncayao Brigade (RPA-ABB).
They tagged Ilog mayor John Paul Alvarez, his father and former vice governor Genaro Alvarez, and Cauayan vice mayor Jerry Tabujara as masterminds.
“Since influential political personalities have been implicated in the case, the possibility that undue influence may be employed upon persons officially tasked by law to prosecute or hear the case, including the prosecution witnesses, is not remote,” the SC said in a resolution dated June 9, 2014.
It ordered the clerk of court of Kabankalan RTC Branch 61 to forward the case records to the Quezon City RTC’s Office of the Clerk of Court. It also ordered the Quezon City RTC’s executive judge to raffle the case, the branches, and the judges.
Agnes Maranan, counsel for the Arleses, had said the venue of the case hearing is very important for the family.
That Judge Arles was killed in Kabankalan is enough basis to move the trial to another place, such as Manila, Maranan said.
“We will have a better chance of getting an impartial hearing in Metro Manila, where you can remove the political aspect of the case,” she said.
Maranan clarified that the petition had nothing to do with Judge Fernando Elumba, who was originally hearing the case.
Deputy Division Clerk of Court Teresita Aquino Tuazon signed the order. Kabankalan RTC Branch 61 received it on July 7.
In a resolution dated Nov. 19, 2012, the Department of Justice dismissed the charges filed against the Alvarezes and Tabujara in connection with Judge Arles’ death for “insufficiency of evidence.”
But the Justice department recommended the filing of murder charges against the RPA-ABB members and Ilog municipal government employee Emmanuel Medes./PN
