CA nixes raps vs Gatdula anew

Former National Bureau of Investigation Director Magtanggol Gatdula

MANILA, Philippines—The Court of Appeals has affirmed its earlier decision nullifying the filing of charges against former National Bureau of Investigation Director Magtanggol Gatdula for the kidnapping and extortion of Japanese national Noriyo Ohara.

In a three-page resolution released on Friday, the court’s Former Sixth Division denied the partial motion for reconsideration filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) through Prosecutor General Claro Arellano seeking permission to use the affidavits obtained by the DOJ fact-finding panel in its preliminary investigation of Gatdula and other suspects.

“After a thorough and judicious review of the allegations in said motion for partial reconsideration, we find no cogent reason to depart from our challenged decision,” said the court in the decision written by Justice Edwin Sorongon.

“The motion has not raised any new or substantial ground to warrant a reversal or even modification of our findings. The matters raised therein had already been exhaustively passed upon in the said decision and discussing them anew would be to belabor the issues all over again,” the court said.

The other members of the division, Justices Marlene Gonzales-Sison and Hakim Abdulwahid, concurred with the ruling.

The court agreed with the earlier decision of the Manila Regional Trial Court that declared the fact-finding investigation as unconstitutional for violating Gatdula’s right to counsel, right against self-incrimination and right to remain silent, among others.

The court believed Gatdula’s claim that he was invited by the panel not as a “resource person” but to build a case against him.

Unless the DOJ goes to the Supreme Court to seek a reversal of the ruling, the government would now have to rely on the original affidavit of Ohara and other evidence presented in the ongoing preliminary investigation to pursue their case.

The appellate court said the DOJ should have not proceeded with the preliminary investigation since Gatdula had raised constitutional questions before the court.

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