MANILA, Philippines - With three months left before he retires, an associate justice of the Court of Appeals is being prodded anew to hurry up his review of the sentences of five men convicted for the murder of retired Col. Rolando Abadilla in 1996.

Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) said having the case drag on is a travesty of justice for the five who have been in jail for more than 10 years.

"The prisoners have been in jail for a decade. Eight justices were earlier designated to review the sentence; however, the mandatory appellate review has dragged on for nearly eight years without coming to a conclusion," it said.

It noted CA Associate Justice Agustin Dizon, the ninth justice assigned to review the sentence of the prisoners, is due to retire June 27 this year.

Dizon is reviewing the sentence of Lenido Lumanog, Augusto Santos, SPO2 Cesar Fortuna, Rameses de Jesus and Joel de Jesus for the murder of Abadilla.

The five men were sentenced to death in August 1999 for the June 1996 murder of Abadilla.

Following their conviction, an automatic review of their case started, but was merely passed on to the Supreme Court in 2000, and to the CA in 2005.

"Talk about an individual's Constitutional right to a speedy trial and to adequate legal remedies has become meaningless. There is no other mechanism left whereby prisoners can seek remedies because the system has become dysfunctional. The appellate court itself, as a last resort to provide remedy to these prisoners, fails in concluding the review promptly," said Moon Jeong Ho, AHRC's Urgent Appeals program coordinator.

AHRC noted Dizon only has three months left to complete the review before he retires.

If he fails to complete the review promptly and make a decision before he retires, there are serious concerns that the appellate review will once again suffer further delay.

Worse, it said the case may be transferred to another justice who would start again from square one.

"This is seriously undermining the probability that the merits of the case will be given adequate attention by the reviewing justice needed to ensure that an impartial and effective review is afforded in the process. In the past, the appellate review would hardly begin before it was held up by numerous delays. There has been an emerging pattern whereby the justices inhibits from reviewing the case, unload it to another justice and so on," AHRC said.

"Court delays thus far illustrate how miserable the life of prisoners could become when the judicial system is not acting promptly. Hardly anything can be done apart from pushing the CA justices to do their job," Moon added.

In January, AHRC set up a website to help monitor and ensure Dizon would act on this case promptly.

The website, "Abadilla 5: Jailed for a decade without Justice," calls upon the SC and CA to ensure the review is completed and decided upon promptly.

The campaign website can be accessed at http://campaigns.ahrchk.net/abadilla5. It also contains relevant documents and further details from the case. - GMANews.TV

21 March 2008
Link: http://www.gmanews.tv/story/85669/AHRC-to-retiring-CA-justice-Resolve-Abadilla-5-case-soon

Link: http://www.gmanews.tv/story/85683/Desisyon-sa-apela-ng-5-nahatulan-sa-pagpatay-kay-Abadilla-pinabibilisan