Human rights watch
FLAG Moves to Have
Punks’ Case Quashed
Seven Free Legal
Assistance Group (FLAG) lawyers representing the punks, who have been in
jail at the Benguet Provincial Jail for more than a month now, argued that
the “honorable Court has no jurisdiction over the accused” and that the
punks were illegally arrested and detained.
BY LYN V. RAMO
Northern Dispatch
Posted by Bulatlat
THROUGH THE BARBED
WIRE, DEFIANTLY: Peeping through the barb wires at the gate of the
Benguet Provincial Jail in La Trinidad town before being allowed to go
inside, a visiting punk clenches his fist as he finally sees his
friends – the 11 punks accused of being New People’s Army (NPA)
guerrillas, arrested and detained allegedly for raiding a police
detachment.
PHOTO BY ACE ALEGRE |
LA TRINIDAD, Benguet (246 kms. north of Manila) — More than a month after
the arrest and detention of 11 punks by the Philippine National Police
(PNP) Buguias, Benguet, defense lawyers filed a motion to quash for lack
of court jurisdiction, pre-empting the arraignment of the robbery with
homicide case earlier filed against them by the PNP.
Seven Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) lawyers representing the punks
argued that the “honorable Court has no jurisdiction over the accused” and
that the punks were illegally arrested and detained.
Regional Trial Judge
Agapito Laoagan of the Regional Trial Court Branch 62 scheduled the
hearing for the Motion to Quash on March 30 and 31. Earlier the
Provincial Fiscal assigned the case, docketed as Criminal Case No.
448-CR-06, at the RTC Branch 64 in Buguias. The prosecutors moved for its
transfer at the RTC 62.
According to the
Motion to Quash filed by Atty. Pablito V. Sanidad in behalf of six other
counsels, no valid waiver for detention was signed by the accused yet they
were held since February 14. It further noted they were arrested without
any warrant.
|
The PNP Buguias
accosted the punks, aged 15 to 24, at around 11:00 a.m. and made them
admit to being a New People’s Army platoon that raided an army detachment
in Mankayan.
Around fifty punks
trooped to the Bulwagan ng Katarungan (justice hall) behind the Provincial
Capitol here hoping to reunite with their friends, who were not yet
presented in court today.
Ten of the 11 accused
are now among 232 inmates at the Benguet Provincial Jail. The other, a
15-year-old girl, is at the premises of the Bureau of Jail Management and
Penology.
“We are 19 in one
cell,” Neil Russel Balajadia, one of the accused punkistas,
confided. Another has 20 cell-mates. They do not mind staying with other
detainees, saying there are other detainees like them jailed for crimes
they did not commit, adding that the evils of the Philippine justice
system are clearly showing even behind bars.
Aldoz Christian
Mañoza, 18, recalled how his captors and interrogators inflicted various
forms of torture. His face is pinkish and shows no bruises, but his
recollection was vivid. He said their tormentors did not believe that
they only wanted to see the Sagada Caves and rice terraces. Whenever he
denied their accusations, he was kicked, choked, subjected to water cure
and made to eat his dreadlocks. Northern Dispatch / Posted by Bulatlat
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