Filtered By: Topstories
News

SC seeks gun ban exemption anew after slay of Vigan judge


Chief Justice Renato Corona on Monday said he will ask the Commission on Elections to exempt judges and justices from the gun ban being implemented for the upcoming barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections. Corona said the request stems from the killing of Vigan City, Ilocos Sur Regional Trial Court Branch 20 presiding judge Reynaldo Lacasandile earlier in the day. (See: Vigan judge shot dead, 2nd in northern Luzon this year) "I'd like to do that (make the request to the Comelec) because I think this is the second incident that a defenseless judge was killed during the gun ban. We'll have to make the necessary requests to the Comelec," Corona told reporters. The gun ban has been in place since September 25. Lacasandile is the second judge murdered in northern Luzon this year. He is also the 21st judge to be killed since 1999, police records show. The first fatality this year was Judge Andres Cipriano of Aparri town in Cagayan province, who was gunned down in May. In April, the high court made the same request to the Comelec when two other judges in Manila and Basilan were attacked. Both judges survived the attacks. The request, however, was not granted. PNP: Motive not yet determined Corona has instructed the Office of the Court Administrator, headed by Jose Midas Marquez, to coordinate with the Philippine Natonal Police's Criminal Investigation and Detection Group or CIDG . Senior Superintendent Christoper Laza, CIDG deputy for operations, spearheads the national task force monitoring violence against judges. Laza told GMANews.TV that the local CIDG in Ilocos Sur is already looking into the cases Lacasandile handled to determine whether his killng may have been work-related. "We have not yet established the motive. We will see the cases he handled as a judge, and prior to that, as a prosecutor. We will see if he made enemies. But as of now, we can't really pinpoint a motive yet," Laxa told GMANews.TV over the phone. Arming members of the judiciary On Monday, Marquez admitted that judges and justices become targets of killings because of the sensitivity of the nature of their work. "They decide important cases that affect the lives of the litigants and there are litigants who cannot accept the decisions of the judges," said Marquez. But Corona said that while he acknowledges that members of the judiciary may have fallen victim to the culture of impunity in the country, he still does not know whether he is in favor of arming all the judges and justices nationwide. He said that carrying a gun may go against the spirit of the rule of law, which magistrates are supposed to upheld. "There are two sides of the coin. On one hand, I'd like to say that judges should be armed because their lives are at risk. On the other hand, ano naman ang itsura ng hudikatura natin na ang huwes ay may hawak na .45 (what will our judiciary look like of our judges carry .45-caliber guns)?" Corona asked. "There should be balance. We should uphold the rule of law and we should not look like we're in the Wild Wild West," he said. Protecting the judges Also on Monday, Philippine Judges' Association head Antonio Eugenio, presiding judge of the Manila RTC Branch 24, said that his group will also ask the Comelec to exempt members of the judiciary from the gun ban. He added that Lacasandile's killing should serve as a wake up call that judges' are at risk. "We condemn in the strongest possible terms the killing of the judge. I think it's about time for the Comelec to revisit the policy. I think the Comelec should now take a second look," Eugenio said in a phone interview with GMANews.TV. He added that even if the Supreme Court conducts lectures on ensuring judges' safety, "no one is safe from a determined hired gun." Last September, the Supreme Court, with the help of the National Bureau of Investigation, held its eighth security training for judges. Sixty judges from the second-level and first-level courts were "oriented on threats assessment, crime prevention, facts regarding firearms, and personal security measures." In January 2008, the SC and the NBI forged the Memorandum of Agreement on Judicial Security to help protect judges as they play their roles in the administration of justice. — RSJ, GMANews.TV

LOADING CONTENT