THE Palace on Monday vowed to exhaust all legal remedies to overturn a Court of Appeals ruling clearing former Palawan governor Joel Reyes who was accused of murdering journalist and environmentalist Gerry Ortega.
Calling the appellate court’s decision “alarming” and a “travesty of justice,” Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said the ruling was a “sad development” for press freedom in the Philippines.
“This is a very sad development for freedom of the press in this country given that the murder of Gerry Ortega is a classic case of extralegal killing,” Roque, who used to be a lawyer for the Ortega family, told reporters.
“We will exercise all legal options to reverse this decision by the CA,” he said.
Roque made his statement even as the Office of the Solicitor General will have to determine whether or not Reyes is already off the hook in the killing of Ortega in Puerto Princesa in January 2011.
But Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II declined to give a definitive answer on whether the prosecution could still pursue an appeal to its case against Reyes because the government would still have to look into the legal implications of the recent Court of Appeals decision exonerating Reyes in the case.
Roque said President Rodrigo Duterte had given him permission to speak on the ruling on a personal capacity, and that the ruling’s reversal was the official position of the Duterte administration.
“I find it alarming that the CA decision, number one, overruled an earlier Supreme Court decision and, number two, arrogated its own judgment for that of the Regional Trial Court that had the opportunity to physically accept the evidence, observe the demeanor of the witnesses and concluded there was, in fact, probable cause,” Roque said.
“The government will exhaust all remedies, including the filing first of a motion for reconsideration having said that there was a prior Supreme Court decision that it is up to the Regional Trial Court to determine the existence of probable cause, which was already determined.”
In a 24-page decision promulgated Thursday last week, the appellate court ruled to nullify and set aside the Puerto Princesa City RTC’s March 27, 2012 Omnibus Motion and August 29, 2013 Order dismissing the murder case against Reyes and barring the trial court from proceeding with the case.
The CA said Reyes was “merely implicated” by a certain Rodolfo Edrad as a co-conspirator in the killing of Ortega. Edrad, the CA said, was not a credible witness. With Rey E. Requejo