Lacson finally off the hook in Kuratong case

THE SUPREME Court has dismissed with finality the multiple murder case filed against Sen. Panfilo Lacson and 33 other police officers in connection with the 1995 operation against the Kuratong Baleleng criminal gang that prosecution witnesses had described as a rubout.

In an en banc resolution issued on Jan. 15, the high court denied the motion for reconsideration filed by the Office of the Solicitor General of the court’s earlier dismissal of the case, say- ing that “the basic issues raised (in the motion) have been passed upon by (the) Court and no substantial arguments were presented to warrant the reversal of the questioned decision.”

For multiple murder

On Nov. 13, 2012, the Supreme Court dismissed the multiple murder case against Lacson, who was then a police officer, and 33 others for the alleged rubout of the Kuratong Baleleng in May 1995.

In December 2012, the Solicitor General filed a motion for reconsideration.

Earlier, the high court upheld a 2003 decision of a Quezon City Regional Trial Court that cleared Lacson, then a police chief superintendent and head of Task Force Habagat, and other police officers in the May 18, 1995, operation against the Kuratong Baleleng that resulted in the death of 11 of its suspected members.

No shootout

But Lacson and the police officers were subsequently charged with multiple murder after SP02 Eduardo de los Reyes of the Criminal Investigation Command claimed there had been no shootout between the police and the suspects but that the gang members were summarily executed.

In its ruling, the high court said the case against Lacson and his men relied on the testimony of Senior Insp. Abelardo Ramos, who testified that he was part of the group that apprehended eight suspects at Superville subdivision. Ramos said he heard Lacson order his men to bring the suspects to Commonwealth Avenue in Que- zon City to be killed in a staged shootout. His testimony was corroborated by three others—SP01 Wilmor Medes, civilian agent Mario Enad and SP02 Noel Seno.

Names not on list

But the court said the prosecution’s evidence—the Philippine National Police’s after-operation report of May 31,1995—showed that “these men took no part in the operations.’’

“The names of Ramos, Medes, Enad and Seno were not on the list,’’ the court said, adding that Medes “had claimed in a joint counteraffidavit that he was on duty at the Traffic Management headquarters at Camp Crame on May 17 and 18.’’

The high court also took note of a counteraffidavit that major witness Ramos had submitted in another case in the Office of the Ombudsman, saying that he was neither at Superville subdivision nor at Commonwealth Avenue during the operation since he was in Bulacan on May 17 and at home on May 18.