A MANILA regional trial court has allowed human rights activist Reina Mae Nasino and two others to post bail for their temporary liberty for the prosecution’s failure to provide strong evidence to substantiate allegations against the three.
Nasino’s case gained attention after her plea to visit her sick three-month-old child at the intensive care unit of the Philippine General Hospital was not acted upon by the court in 2020.
The child eventually died, and Nasino’s family complained of “cruel and inhuman treatment” she got from the police and the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology during the wake and burial.
Bail for Nasino and fellow activist Alma Moran was set ay P420,000 each, and P570,000 for another activist, Ram Carlo Bautista.
A support group of families and friends of political prisoners asked the court to reduce what they said is the “excessive and gargantuan bail” set for the three activists.
The group Kapatid said the amount is “patently unequal and grossly unjust” compared to the bail bond posted by former First Lady Imelda Marcos who was has been convicted for seven counts of graft and corruption by the Sandiganbayan but allowed to post bail while her appeal is being heard.
Marcos was allowed by the anti-graft court to post P150,000 bail in November 2018 after finding her guilty of stealing P10.5 billion of public funds through Swiss foundations when she was governor of metropolitan Manila during martial law. Marcos has yet to serve even a single day of the 42 years of imprisonment meted by the anti-graft court.
“The decision of Manila RTC Branch 47 allowing detained activists Reina Mae Nasino, Alma Moran and Ram Carlo Bautista to post bail is bittersweet because it is long overdue but the amount attached to their freedom is excessive that it becomes another injustice,” said Kapatid spokesperson Fides Lim, wife of detained National Democratic Front consultant Vicente Ladlad.
Lim said the families of the detained activists would have a hard time coming up with the amount for their bail.
Presiding Judge Paulino Gallegos of the Manila RTC Branch 47, in an order dated December 12, granted the joint petition for bail of Nasino, Bautista and Moran in the illegal possession of firearms and explosives charges filed by the PNP.
The three were arrested in Tondo, Manila in November 2019 for alleged illegal possession of firearms and a fragmentation grenade. Police claimed they were supporters of the communist New People’s Army, a charge the activists and their families denied.
Gallegos, in approving the petition, said the prosecution failed to provide strong evidence to substantiate the allegations against the three.
“After a careful examination of the evidence presented by the prosecution and without necessarily delving into the validity of the search warrants issued against the accused as the same are still pending before the appellate court, the Court finds that the evidence of guilt against all accused are not strong,” the court said.
“Wherefore, premises considered, for failure of the prosecution to prove that the evidence against all accused are strong, the joint petition for bail filed by all accused is hereby granted,” the court added.
Gallegos said two prosecution witnesses — barangay chairperson Jocelyn Corpuz and police Cpl Christopher Jacinto — failed to identify Nasino and her fellow activists, and which firearm was recovered from each of them during a raid.
“The general testimony of witnesses Corpuz and Jacinto will not suffice to establish that indeed the evidence against the accused were strong,” the court added.
The court further held that while Corpuz supposedly accompanied the raiding team, she could not identify who the occupant was of the room where a paper bag containing a fragmentation grenade was supposedly found. Corpuz also could not say what kind of firearm was recovered in the next room where two women were already lying with their faces on the floor, their hands tied by the police operatives, when she entered the premises.
As to Jacinto, the court said he testified that he was merely a photographer during the implementation of the search warrant, and he was called in after the team already searched the premises.
In September, the Court of Appeals voided the search warrants issued by controversial Quezon City Executive Judge Cecilyn Burgos-Villavert and used by the police to arrest Nasino and her fellow activists. The Office of the Solicitor General has appealed the CA ruling.
Progressive and human rights groups earlier called the attention of the Supreme Court to Burgos-Villavert’s issuance of search warrants that lead to the arrests of many of their members. Last year, a Mandaluyong court also cleared activists Lady Ann Salem and Rodrigo Esparago of charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives ruling that the search warrant issued by Burgos-Villavert and used by the police was also void.
She also issued the search warrants in 2019 used by the police to arrest activists in Bacolod City.
SC rules allow executive judges of Manila and Quezon City to issue search warrants outside their jurisdictions.
