Exactly fourteen years ago on May 18, eleven members of the dreaded bank robbery gang who called themselves as the Kuratong Baleleng were ruthlessly killed in a rubout operation along Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City allegedly by several rogue members of the Philippine National Police. Included among those who lay dead were two minors, Meleuren Sorronda and Sherwyn Abalora, who were merely on a vacation from Dipolog City. The following day, the head of the so-called gang was also found killed together with another alleged member in Biñan in Laguna.
Sadly, up until now this classic case of extrajudicial killings remain unsolved as the Supreme Court is yet to give a decision on the pending administrative case filed by the families of the slain Kuratong Baleleng members against Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 81 Judge Ma. Theresa Dela Torre-Yadao who mysteriously dismissed the multiple murder charges against 11 police officers involved in the alleged rubout.
Up until now, the accused officers are yet to spend jail time and are yet to answer for their crimes for violating the rights of these people. Ironically, Senator Panfilo Lacson who was already directly linked to the rubout case by a living witness is still blissfully occupying a seat in the very halls of the Senate and is now even into an in-depth political warpath against his presidential nemesis in the 2010 elections – Senator Manny Villar. But how long will the families of the slain robbery gang members have to wait before the Supreme Court would finally issue an edict on the pending administrative case?
How many witnesses should come forward before the Supreme Court would realize that it can now revive the case and finally resolve the 11 multiple murder charges filed against 11 police officers? In March 2001, two witnesses - Senior Insp. Abelardo Ramos and Insp. Ysmael Yu – already braved the threats to their lives and came forward to issue affidavits stating that Senator Lacson himself assented to the rubout operation and was even quoted as saying “‘Baka may mabuhay pa diyan (make sure no one survives)” during a briefing held in Camp Crame. Aside from Yu and Ramos, nine more witnesses to the crime are now in the custody of the Justice Department’s Witness Protection Program. Four of these witnesses were among those who directly fired at the victims. And yet, the Supreme Court is mysteriously blind to their existence and to the pleas of the families of the slain victims. Since 2006, the Supreme Court after issuing an en banc resolution noting the urgent resolution filed by the private counsels of the Kuratong Baleleng members for the Court to resolve the case is yet to give out a decision. Does Senator Lacson have a hand on the seeming inaction and indecision of the Supreme Court specifically Chief Reynato Puno to finally give justice to these eleven victims who are clearly fatalities of extrajudicial killings?
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