The City Prosecutor’s Office here denied the Motion for Reconsideration filed by Nolito Ragunjan, University of Northern Philippines’ (UNP) coordinator for Student Publication, on its theft case against Tandem Editor-in-Chief Ma. Criselda Diocena, stating there is no “plausible reason to reconsider the questioned resolution.”
BY ROD TAJON, JR.
Northern Dispatch
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Posted by (Bulatlat.com)
Vol. VIII, No. 24, July 20-26, 2008
VIGAN CITY (407 kms north of Manila) – The City Prosecutor’s Office here denied the Motion for Reconsideration filed by Nolito Ragunjan, University of Northern Philippines’ (UNP) coordinator for Student Publication, on its theft case against Tandem Editor-in-Chief Ma. Criselda Diocena, stating there is no “plausible reason to reconsider the questioned resolution.”
Ragunjan accused Ma. Criselda Diocena and other students of theft last May. A month after, the City Prosecutor’s Office dismissed the theft complaint against Diocena when it found no probable cause to try Diocena. The findings said that the elements of intent to gain and unlawful taking “could hardly be inferred.”
According to the motion Ragunjan filed, all elements of theft are present in the case. However, in a two-page resolution penned by Fiscal Dedicacion Banua on June 30, the City Prosecutor’s Office stated that it found otherwise. It stated that the taking of the central processing unit (CPU) from the Tandem office and transferring it to another office within the premises of the University is “just like getting an item from a (pair of) pants’ right pocket and placing it to the left pocket of the same pant(s).”
The resolution added that when the CPU was brought out, the security guards were present but did not lift a finger to prevent Diocena and her companions from taking the CPU – something the fiscal said the guards would have done if they believed that the taking was with “evil intent.”
“Common sense dictates that a thief does not steal in the presence of many people,” the resolution noted.
Diocena, a 5th year Geodetic Engineering student, welcomed the decision of the City Prosecutor’s Office.
“It only proves that Ragunjan is determined to put me behind bars due to my continuing resistance to the school’s repressive policies,” Diocena said. Diocena said Ragunjan and the UNP administration did not succeed in these efforts.
“If this is their way of reprimanding the students for exposing and protesting against tuition and other fee increases, and campus repression, more and more students will opt to arouse, organize and mobilize to resist these measures and struggle for a nationalist, scientific and mass-oriented education,” Diocena said.
After the decision, Ragunjan filed a Motion for Reconsideration on the Resolution issued by the City Prosecutor Office. However, the court said that the motion was filed beyond the ten-day reglementary period to file a motion for reconsideration according the manual for prosecutors. Northern Dispatch / Posted by (Bulatlat.com)
