Court orders release of 2 jailed terror suspects

TWO members of an indigenous community called Aeta or Dumagat that have been incarcerated since August last year for allegedly being “terrorists” have been ordered released by an Olongapo City trial court judge for unlawful search and arrest.

At Monday’s press conference, held at the central office of the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) in Quezon City, PAO chief Persida Rueda-Acosta hailed Judge Melani Fay Tadili, of the Olongapo City Regional Trial Court’s Branch 97, over her decision to dismiss the terrorism case against Japer Gurung alias Ka Jepoy and Junior Ramos alias Ka Jaypee.

The PAO chief said both Gurung and Ramos, arrested in Zamabales sometime in August last year, were the first to be known to have been charged for violation of Republic Act (RA) 11479 or the “Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020.”

Rueda-Acosta told reporters that her agency decided to assist the two that were previously represented by the National Union of People’s Lawyers after concerned groups and individuals prodded her to look at their case.

When she personally checked, she believed Gurung and Ramos were unlawfully arrested and, worse, accused by government law enforcers of being members of the New People’s Army as they were only mistaken to be part of terrorist groups.

In her nine-page decision, Tadili said the prosecutor failed to discharge the burden of proving their identities as perpetrators of the crime; hence, her decision to dismiss the case against them, basically on the ground of insufficiency of evidence.

She further explained that the inconsistencies of the soldiers on the presence of the accused at the crime scene and the profiling of the accused and the presence of the danger signals in their identification of the accused cast doubt on their testimonies that the two were the perpetrators of the crime.

The danger signals the judge was referring to were the “limited opportunity on the part of the witness to see the accused before the commission of the crime”and the“fact that several perso ns committed the crime.”

“There is no lawful arrest of the accused. Thus, the warrantless search on the accused is invalid, and considering that there is no more evidence to support their conviction, the case for violation of RA 10951 or the ‘Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act’ and Presidential Decree 1866 (illegal possession of firearms) as amended by RA 9156 (codifying the laws on illegal possession of firearms [and] ammunition, among others) against them must also be dismissed,” according to the Olongapo judge.

Lauding Public Attorney Collins Coloma for “a job well done,” Rueda-Acosta asked him, who attended the press briefing thru Zoom meeting along with Gurung and Ramos while still at the detention facility, to make sure the two Aeta members could go back home immediately to reunite with their family.

Dr. Erwin Erfe, the PAO Forensics Division chief who is also a lawyer, warned the jail warden not to further delay the release of the two from detention since the court order has been released as early as July 15, 2021.

“He would be facing at least 10 years in prison as stated under the anti-terrorism law if he would continue to detain them in violation of their constitutional rights,”Erfe said.