DAVAO CITY (Updated) -- The suspect in the May 2009 Patikul bombing, who was transferred to Sulu on Tuesday, was flown back to Davao City on Wednesday following a Supreme Court (SC) order.
The SC ordered Judge Peter Eisma, executive judge of the Regional Trial Court (RTC), Branch 9 in Zamboanga City, to move Remogen Sahipa Tulawie back to Davao City.
On Tuesday, Tulawie was transferred from Davao City Police Office (DCPO) jail to the Sulu provincial jail following an order of RTC, Branch 3 in Jolo, Sulu, Judge Betlee-Ian J. Barraquias.
Tulawie boarded a Cebu Pacific commercial flight from Davao to Zamboanga City at 1:55 p.m. Tuesday with the Special Action Force and Regional Intelligence Division escorts. But upon reaching the Zamboanga International Airport, the escorts were ordered to bring back the suspect to Davao City.
Tulawie, tagged in the bombing incident in Patikul, Sulu, that left 12 people wounded, including Sulu Governor Abdulsakur Tan, is now detained at the Davao City Police Office where he was first brought when arrested last Sunday.
Commission on Human Rights regional Director Alberto Sipaco said SC deputy administrator Raul Bautista Villanueva on Tuesday issued an order directing Eisma to ensure that custody of the suspect must be retained in Davao City.
The court order of Villanueva showed that the order of Barraquias is contrary to the resolution of the Third Division of the Supreme Court on June 13, 2011, detaining Tulawie in Davao City.
Sipaco said the SC released two orders in the form of letter, first was directing Eisma not to comply with the order of Barraquias because the motion for reconsideration of the complainant Tan to hold Tulawie’s trial in Sulu has been denied, thus order to transfer Tulawie back to Sulu is no longer valid; second was bringing back the suspect in Davao City.
The Mindanao Peoples Caucus (MPC), meanwhile, hit Regional Trial Court Executive Judge Pelagio Paguican for allowing Tulawie to be transferred to Sulu.
But Paguican said he was just following the rules of court.
“Ang instruction sa ako sa Supreme Court, upon receiving the records from RTC Sulu akong ipa-raffle ang kaso ngadto sa different court diri sa Davao. Mao ra na akong participation sa kaso, (The Supreme Court’s instruction is only to raffle the case among the branches here in Davao as soon as we receive the records from RTC Sulu. That is only my participation in the case),” he said.
He said he cannot issue any order, especially that the records of Tulawie’s case have yet to be transferred to the Davao courts and the raffling of the case has not yet commenced.
Abdul Malik Cleofe of MPC said on Wednesday they are disappointed that Paguican failed to stand for justice and the rule of law by not acting on the decision of the SC.
Paguican, on the other hand, stressed that a commitment order cannot be issued unless court records from the RTC in Sulu are already transferred in Davao.
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(With Arianne Caryl N. Casas of Sun.Star Davao/Sunnex)
Published in the Sun.Star Davao newspaper on January 19, 2012.
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