Two untold woes, two cases

two untold woes, two cases

There is one topic I promised not to blog about: my lawyering. Yet, when the need to write comes from within, you cannot rest until it finds a medium. Let me break my promise.It has become a cliché but its truth rings aloud: the strength of the nation lies in its respect for the rule of law. But respecting the law does not come overtime. It evolves through time, when the nation wakes up, after a revolution or a national crisis, that its survival depends on the respect for the rule of law.

I am on the 16th year in the practice of law now. But there are two cases I handled that I cannot forget: the homicide case of a military man and the statutory rape.

1. The military man

Capt. Bolina graduated from the Philippine Military Academy, the West Point of the Philippines. Alumni of the school become generals, and national leaders. The academy is a ladder to improve the social status. The poor who has the brains can take the qualifying exam, and graduating in the academy assures a bright future, or those who die early in battle, a national honor.

When I first met him, he was hopeful that the case of Reckless Imprudence Resulting to Homicide filed against him would be dismissed.

He had a bakery. One day, his employee set up a live tie wire in the bakery due to the rampant robbery in the place. A robber was electrocuted by the tie wire that was connected to an electrical outlet. The robber died. Surprisingly. he was indicted for the death of the robber but not his employee.

In criminal law, it is basic principle that crime is personal in character. For one to be indicted of a crime, he must have a direct participation, a co-conspirator, an accomplice, or an accessory. Capt. Bolina who was then assigned at a military camp which was 250 kilometers away from his bakery , did not have a hand in putting up the live ties wire nor did he instruct his employee to set up the same. He had no personal involvement of the crime.

After analyzing the case, I told him that he would be acquitted. I kidded him that I would stake my profession as a lawyer. The case was tried in the municipal trial court for five years. When decision came out, I did not entertain the possibility of conviction. I was so certain of his acquittal. Yet, when the Clerk of Court read the last sentence of the decision, I was stunned. My client was convicted.

I told him of the legal remedies. The case could be appealed but then he would lose his right to a probation which means that if the higher court sustains the conviction, he will be imprisoned and cannot serve his sentence outside the jail. If he would not appeal the case, his sentence of less than six years would be served by him outside the jail pursuant to the probation program.

After briefing him of the legal consequences of the appeal, he asked me, “ Attorney, are you sure I will be acquitted by the higher court?” I told him only the gods can be sure of the future, but I am sure of the law, and if the law is applied, he will be acquitted.

The case was appealed. After almost two years of waiting, and volumes of legal briefs, the appealed case was decided. In one sentence, the appellate court ruled: “Finding no merit of the appeal, the decision of the lower court is sustained.” I was devastated.

There was no more retreat. Having lost the opportunity to avail of the probation program, the war must be finished. Two battles have been lost, but it is not over until it’s over. My client , instead of sulking, fought back: “We will go up as high as the Supreme Court.” I forgot that my client was trained to fight, and lawyers are gladiators in the court.

We elevated the case to the Court of Appeals. I devoured criminal law books as I had never done before. I re-read the transcript of the stenographic notes even in my dreams. Man’s finest hour does not come in a moment of bliss; it comes in the moment of crisis.

After filing the last legal brief, the case was submitted for decision. Considering the clog dockets of the court, we waited for another two years. Meanwhile, the mistahs (classmates) of my client in the academy by that time either already died in battle, or promoted to colonel. Due to the pending criminal case, my client was not even promoted to major. He said: “Attorney, I cannot be a major because I have already a major problem now.” He has poise in adversity.

After almost nine years when the case was first filed in the lower court, I received the decision of the Court of Appeals. My client was acquitted, and more: The judges of the lower court were castigated for incompetence. The case should not have been filed at all.

I told my client that we can file administrative cases against the judges for gross ignorance of the law. But his was a forgiving heart. He said, “Dios na bahala sa kanila attorney.” [Let God decide their fate] this, despite the many years of mental anguish and lost opportunities.

He deserves to be a general one day.

II. Punishment of the Acquitted

So tell me, how can the acquitted be punished?

Yes, an acquitted was punished, brutalized, and his life thrown away by the system that is supposedly the vanguard of justice. This is the case of Conrado Banac, a man in his mid-fifties from Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines, who was charged with rape way back in the year 2000.

I got to know this man in 1996 yet when I practised my legal profession in Butuan City, Philippines. He retained me as counsel to recover his parents’s lands from the big-time landgrabbers who used the legal system to title lands they do not own , in their names.

Exactly a decade ago, Conrado would come to our law firm in Butuan City, well-groomed, full of dreams, for himself, for his family, and he even dreamed of sharing his fortune to me when we would have won the land dispute case. He has always been poor but his dignity then was still intact.

But the tragedy of life befell him. Sometime in the year 2000, when I relocated my practice of law in Cagayan de Oro, Philippines, his mother, who was already in her late 8O’s came knocking at the doors of my law office, and pleaded that I handle his son’s case pro bono. Conrado was charged with statutory rape of an eleven – year old child.

I hesitated. I needed revenues considering that I just relocated. That was not an opportune time for pro bono cases. But as I sifted through the evidences for the prosecution, the tell-tale signs of rape are sorely wanting. There was no laceration, no spermatozoa, and within 24 hours of the alleged rape, the child was medically examined and the physician did not have any significant finding of sexual assault. His indictment was a failure of analysis for the prosecution. This man was innocent, and his life should not be put away just because he did not have money to put up a decent defense.

I accepted the case.

But in the Philippines, rape is a heinous crime, a non-bailable offense. While the case was being heard in court, Conrado had to languish in the prison cell . The condition of the prison is sub-human that just to keep ones sanity intact is already the triumph of human spirit.

The case lasted for six years. All throughout those years, Conrado had to bear the brutalities of prison life, of sleeping in a dark and damp dungeon of prison. Finally, in the year 2005, the case was decided, and as I correctly analyzed, Conrado was adjudged innocent. He was acquitted.

Days after the acquittal, Conrado came to my office, more to share his woes than to thank me. Six years after the case, he went back to his place in the slum area of Cagayan de Oro City. His house was already demolished, his wife eloped with somebody else, and his seven children are now stow-aways, except for the two young ones who are cared by his aged mother.

When he came to my office, he was in tattered dress, his body emaciated. The justice system broke everything he had and loved. Worse, the prison had vanquished his spirit. He is a beaten man, like a drift-wood tossed in the rough seas. Sometimes, I see him in the streets, barely human, barely alive.

But the irony, he was acquitted.

Sunday September 23, 2007 – 07:46am (CST) Edit | Delete | Permanent Link | 4 Comments