The Supreme Court (SC) First Division has ordered a regional trial courtroom to conduct the fast re-arrest and detention of former Palawan governor Mario Joel Reyes in reference to the killing of environmentalist and broadcaster Gerardo “Gerry” Ortega in 2011.
In a decision dated March 29 which was solely made public on Sunday, the SC directed the RTC Branch 52 in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan to additionally proceed “with utmost dispatch” the proceedings in Criminal Case No. 26839, by which Reyes is accused in Ortega’s homicide.
This got here after the SC denied Reyes’ petition to reverse and put aside the amended choice by the Court of Appeals (CA) in November 2019 and its decision in February 2021 in connection to the case.
GMA Integrated News is making an attempt to get remark from Reyes and his camp, and can publish it as quickly as it’s obtainable.
The CA in 2019 reversed its January 2018 choice to dismiss the case, and directed the Puerto Princesa City RTC to challenge a warrant for Reyes’ arrest and proceed with the prosecution.
“We do not find that the CA committed reversible error when it affirmed the trial court’s Orders,” the decision learn.
The SC identified that Reyes “failed to present any convincing evidence to show how the RTC abused, or acted in capricious and whimsical exercise of judgment amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction in denying the motions filed by petitioner and ordering the continuation of the criminal proceedings against him.”
“There is likewise no showing that the trial court’s power was exercised in an arbitrary and despotic manner. Petitioner’s disagreement with the conclusions reached by the trial court, without more, is not sufficient to warrant the issuance of the extraordinary writ of certiorari,” it added.
Ortega was shot lifeless in January 2011, in a slaying that bore the hallmarks of a contract killing.
He had been campaigning towards mining pursuits in Palawan.
Police caught the gunman, recognized as Marlon Recamata, who admitted to the crime and implicated Rodolfo Edrad, Dennis Aranas, and Armando “Salbakuta” Noel, Jr. — BM, GMA Integrated News
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
