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

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

© 2006 Bulatlat ■  Alipato Publications

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