‘It has been quite common for the lower courts, along with the Court of Appeals, to deny credible witnesses in innumerable cases, especially those involving the less fortunate and least-politically connected.’
THE delay in the public release of the decision of the Supreme Court absolving 21 police officers from two counts of murder for the killing of a father and his son in Caloocan City has raised some questions on the legal integrity of the case. The 22-page decision dismissing the appeal of the widow (Mary Ann Domingo) was promulgated on October 11, 2023 but was only published last January 22. It upheld the ruling of the Deputy Ombudsman for homicide charges to be filed against only four of the 21 officers.
The unarmed father and son were gunned down in cold blood, with Domingo testifying that “she saw her husband on his knees with guns pointed at his head,” clearly indicating a police execution. She insisted that “the operation was not a buy-bust but a raid because it was conducted by more than 20 uniformed police officers.”
The Deputy Ombudsman for the Military and other Law Enforcement Officers has denied the accounts of most of the numerous witnesses against the blood-thirsty police officers, with the High Court junking the widow’s claim of grave abuse of discretion against the official as “bereft of merit.”
It has been quite common for the lower courts, along with the Court of Appeals, to deny credible witnesses in innumerable cases, especially those involving the less fortunate and least politically connected.
The Court of Last Resort should be more incisive, deeply committed, and should be the “trier of facts,” especially when the facts are shamelessly distorted and trampled.
I recall that the Caloocan EJK was the news-breaking story that DZRH had covered on that fateful night of September 16, 2016 in Caloocan City. I was the evening anchor then who became exasperated when no one among the numerous officers could clearly give details of the incident, except to claim “na nang laban sila.”
In our regular news coverage of the bloody drug campaign under the Duterte administration, it had been quite a challenge to put together the missing pieces of information that the police could provide and had to depend on witnesses in hiding who were threatened and harassed by drug operatives or vigilante groups.
There seems to be always something fishy in any delay in the settlement of government transactions or in the outcome of criminal or civil cases against prominent public officials, which has practically defined this country’s broken criminal justice system.
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It was somehow an endearing moment for President Bongbong Marcos to call for a “gentler and kinder society” in honor of the fallen SAF 44.
During the “National Remembrance of the Heroic SAF 44,” he said: “How do we pay homage to these brave men whose gallantry no memorial could fully capture? Whose courage no words can fully extoll. It is by working tirelessly to realize their dreams for their family, for their children, for their comrades, for the people.”
Etched in the nation’s memory were the anguished scenes of children and spouses with their arms flung around the coffins of their loved ones at the Bicutan Police NCR grounds.
Their deepening pain was initially ignored by a President who favored guesting at the formal opening of a popular car dealership in Canlubang, instead of gently offering his hand of comfort when the corpses began arriving at Villamor Air Base. (His reluctance to extend his condolences had been restrained by his alleged responsibility in the deaths of SAF 44.)
The dreams of the SAF 44 for a just and peaceful society for their loved ones, “for their comrades and the people” are also ours, and “working tirelessly” to reach them should compel the President to take a more humane and compassionate route in ending the insurgency, as well as in ensuring genuine justice for the 15,000 killed in former President Duterte’s brutal drug war.
Dismissing any legal impediments, he should advocate a truly humanitarian gesture by funding the education of the children left behind by the victims of EJKs.
