News Brief by Ezra Viola and Aneliza Tangonan
Case Digest prepared by Jillian Velasco
FACTS:
On August 2, 2023, 17-year-old Jerhode Jemboy Baltazar and his friend Sonny Boy were on a fishing trip at a local river along Babanse St., Barangay NBBS Kaunlaran, Navotas City.
At the same time, cops from the Navotas City Philippine National Police (PNP) were conducting a hot pursuit operation against murder suspect Reynaldo Bolvar, alias “Reyrey,” relying upon a confidential informant’s report that the aforementioned suspect was on board a green boat.
Rattled upon the arrival of 19 policemen at the river, Baltazar jumped off the boat while his friend, Sonny, remained. Baltazar was fatally shot by Police Staff Sergeant Gerry Maliban. His body was left submerged in water for approximately three hours before the police allowed his family to retrieve him.
The PNP then filed before the Office of the City Prosecutor a case for reckless imprudence resulting in homicide against six policemen – Police Executive Master Sergeant Roberto Balais Jr., Police Staff Sergeants Antonio Bugayong, Nikko Pines Esquilon, Police Corporal Edward Jade Blanco, Patrolman Benedict Mangada, and Maliban. In addition, the PNP ordered the immediate dismissal from service of the six officers together with Police Captain Mark Joseph Carpio and Luisito dela Cruz.
The Initiatives for Dialogue and Empowerment through Alternative Legal Services (IDEALS), the family’s legal counsel, filed an amended complaint, elevating the charges to murder.
The six accused policemen claimed they only fired their shots at the boat with no intention of hurting Baltazar. Bugayong asserted that he did not fire any shot at all. All six accused policemen pleaded not guilty.
ISSUE: Whether or not the six policemen are guilty of murder.
RULING: The court ruled in the NEGATIVE.
The Navotas City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 286 convicted only one of the six policemen accused of homicide – Police Staff Sergeant Maliban. On the other hand, Balais, Jr., Esquilon, Blanco, and Mangada were convicted of illegal discharge of firearms and sentenced to serve four to six months imprisonment. Bugayong Jr. was acquitted since it was not proven in court that he fired his gun during the operation.
The RTC explained that Maliban could not have “employed means, methods or forms of the execution of the crime,” despite his firing the gun that matched the bullet cartridge found in the boat involved in the incident. “This is because the urge to shoot the victim materialized only when the victim attempted to escape and PSSg. Malaban aimed his shot at him instantly,” the court said.
Moreover, the Court also explained that Maliban’s act was a justifying circumstance under Article 11 of the RPC; he was merely performing his duty as a police officer.
“There is no doubt that PSSg. Maliban was performing his duty during that fatal incident of Aug. 2, 2023. He went to the river because his assistance was sought by the Officer in Charge of Sub-Station 4, Navotas City Police Station to arrest a suspect of a crime,” the court’s decision read.
According to RTC, the four police officers did not conspire with Maliban and did not have an intent to kill the victim. “As we found that these accused did not conspire with PSSg. Maliban in shooting Jemboy [Baltazar] and that they lacked the intention to kill the victim as shown by their acts of firing their guns in the water just in front of them, they are only liable in Illegal Discharge of Firearms,” the court’s decision read.
Their release was in order as they had served their sentence during their preventive detention that started on October 5, 2023, as per Article 29 of the RPC. “If after crediting their preventive imprisonment, the said accused have already served the sentence imposed upon them here, it behooves upon him to be released from detention…unless any of them is being held for some lawful cause,” the court’s decision read.
THE BARRISTER 