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  1. Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Posts
    6,058
    #1
    From: GMA News Online

    After five years of detention without formal charges, drug suspect Joan Urbina will be finally freed.

    This was after the Court of Appeals' Seventh Division granted her petition for certiorari and habeas corpus and ordered authorities to release her.

    The court said Urbina should be freed because her incarceration without formal charges was "violative of petitioner’s Constitutional rights to a speedy disposition of her case and to due process of law.”

    Urbina and her boyfriend Ben Bryan Chua were arrested in December 2007 for alleged possession and use of illegal drugs and paraphernalia, in violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

    In January 2008, the Quezon City Prosecutor's Office dismissed the drug complaints against Chua for lack of evidence, while those against Urbina remained. She was locked up at the Philippine Custodial Center in Camp Crame.

    While Urbina's case was originally handled by the Department of Justice (DOJ) under former Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, it was only two weeks ago that formal cases were filed against her with the Quezon City Regional Trial Court, which raffled it off to Branch 227 Judge Elvira de Castro-Panganiban.

    Before the cases were filed against her, Urbina had filed in January a petition for certiorari and habeas corpus, contesting her five-year detention.

    Case too late

    In its ruling, the CA struck down the cases filed against Urbina for being lodged way too late.

    “The Information filed before the Regional Trial Court of Quezon City, Branch 227 is hereby declared null and void for having been filed way beyond the period prescribed under pertinent rules of the Department of Justice,” the CA said in its 18-page ruling penned by Associate Justice Noel Tijam.

    The appellate court also said that the National Prosecution Service and Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, who inherited Urbina's case from three Justice secretaries who came before her, "were not able to explain the delay in filing the Information in court, there was neither sufficient justification for the unceremonious filing… at a time when petitioner has already sought recourse to question her prolonged illegal detention.”

    Sought for comment, Prosecutor General Claro Arellano told GMA News Online that the DOJ has already appealed to reverse the CA ruling.

    He maintained that the DOJ did not err when it subjected Urbina's case under an automatic review.

    "Dapat ma-review muna

    ito, subject ito to automatic review. At nailabas nga ang resolution sa automatic review ina-affirm ang filing ng kaso against her," Arellano said, adding the case has not been prescribed yet.

    "Puwede pang mag-file ng information," pointed out.

    Arellano had earlier inhibited from Urbina's case because he was the one who handled the case while he was still a prosecutor at the Quezon City Prosecutor's Office. — KBK, GMA News
    Our justice system sucks big time. Not only are court cases allowed to drag on for eons, but now, you can be incarcerated without any charges filed against you.
    Last edited by falken; June 18th, 2013 at 10:57 AM.

  2. Join Date
    Jun 2011
    Posts
    4,513
    #2
    sir lumalabas walang naka file sa COURT pero may pending case naman sa doj...

    TUMAGAL ang kaso sa DOJ...

    balita namin ganyan daw NGAYON sa doj... AABUTIN KA NG TAON BAGO ILABAS NI de lima ang resolution

    FOR signature nalang inaabot pa ng taon.....

  3. Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Posts
    15,528
    #3
    in other countires the victim can sue the state for this... but unfortunately it cant be done here.
    imagine kung talagang innocent yung tao..l lost time, lost opportunities.

  4. Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Posts
    12,358
    #4
    Hubert Webb?

  5. Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Posts
    22,705
    #5
    Quote Originally Posted by glenn manikis View Post
    sir lumalabas walang naka file sa COURT pero may pending case naman sa doj...

    TUMAGAL ang kaso sa DOJ...

    balita namin ganyan daw NGAYON sa doj... AABUTIN KA NG TAON BAGO ILABAS NI de lima ang resolution

    FOR signature nalang inaabot pa ng taon.....
    According to the article, she has been in custody since 2007, and charges were filed against her companion in 2008. Which means it's the previous Secretary's fault for not initiating a case against her for three years.

    Ang pagbalik ng comeback...

Tags for this Thread

CA frees illegally detained suspect