Manila court throws out cases vs Sept. 21 protesters
A Manila court has quashed, for insufficient evidence the, various criminal charges filed against eight individuals who allegedly “kicked and grabbed the shields” of police officers during the Sept. 21 anticorruption protests last year.
In its 20-page ruling dated Nov. 6, the Manila Metropolitan Trial Court (MeTC) Branch 22 granted the demurrer to evidence filed by the accused.
A demurrer to evidence is a motion to throw out the case based on insufficiency of evidence brought to the court by the prosecution. The granting of a demurrer results in an acquittal.
“It perplexes the court how the arresting officers were able to accurately and reliably identify the individual accused as the very persons who allegedly kicked and grabbed their shields,” the court said.
It noted that the accusations of “kicking and grabbing” were “fundamentally insufficient” to prove the crime alleged.
“Otherwise, all perceived disorderly conduct regardless of gravity and seriousness would be associated with serious disturbances,” it added.
Worse, the testimonies of the prosecution witnesses do not coincide with the joint affidavit filed by the police, the court said.
“At the end of the day, and always, a criminal imputation, no matter how grave, must still overcome the constitutional presumption of innocence,” it stressed. “Conviction demands proof beyond reasonable doubt and there can be no moral certainty of guilt if the evidence is in all respects patently insufficient.”
Human rights lawyers welcomed the decision, with Kristina Conti of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers saying it showed that the police’s witnesses and documentary evidence were “too weak to sustain a finding of guilt.”
For human rights lawyer VJ Topacio of Pro-Labor Assistance Center, who assisted some of the accused, the dismissal “serves as a judicial reminder that the criminal justice system must never be employed as an instrument to suppress legitimate dissent or punish those who demand accountability from public officials.”
