Calida: Ex-NPA leader Rodolfo Salas’ arrest, detention legal

Solicitor General Jose Calida argued before the Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday that the current detention of former New People's Army (NPA) leader Rodolfo Salas for a murder case is legal.

During oral arguments, Calida said Salas' detention at the Manila City Jail is "by virtue of a lawful public authority" for having been based on an arrest warrant issued by a judge in the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC).

"Your Honors, given that Rodolfo is confined under a lawful order, the proper remedy is to pursue the orderly course of the criminal proceedings and exhaust the usual remedies," he said in his opening statement.

The SC is hearing arguments on a habeas corpus petition filed by Salas' son, who is seeking the release of his 72-year-old father based on an argument that the murder case is absorbed in his rebellion conviction in 1991.

Through the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG), Jody Salas argued Rodolfo's conviction -- for which he had finished serving his sentence -- was based on a plea bargain agreement shielding him from future prosecution for all common crimes committed in furtherance of rebellion.

Rodolfo was arrested last month for 15 counts of murder over the 2006 discovery of the skeletal remains of alleged victims of the the communist "purge" in the 1980s. He is scheduled to be arraigned on March 17.

Calida argued a petition for habeas corpus is the wrong remedy as the elder Salas was legally arrested. He said the ordinary remedy would be for Rodolfo to file a motion to quash the murder charges at the RTC.

"There is also nothing stopping Rodolfo from asking for a reinvestigation especially since has not yet been arraigned," the solicitor general said.

Double jeopardy?

In seeking his father's release, Jody invoked the Hernandez-Enrile political offense doctrine, which states that crimes committed in furtherance of rebellion are already absorbed by the rebellion charge.

On the other hand, Calida argued that the enumerated acts in the old rebellion charge against Rodolfo did not include the 15 counts of murder that are now pending in court.

"Absent any factual finding from the said decision, the present murder charges against Rodolfo cannot be automatically considered as to have been absorbed into the crime of rebellion," he said.

The mass graves that are the basis of the murder charge were discovered in Inopacan, Leyte only on August 26, 2006, years after Rodolfo was sentenced.

But Rodolfo's lawyer, FLAG's Arno Sanidad, argued that the murders were allegedly committed in 1985 and thus fall under the rebellion conviction, which he said covers acts committed from 1970 to 1986.

"As a factual matter, the alleged murders currently charged are absorbed. As a legal matter, the alleged murders currently charged are barred. As a constitutional matter, the alleged murders constitute double jeopardy," Sanidad said in his opening statement.

Calida, for his part, urged the SC to allow the Manila RTC to continue hearing the murder case, in which he said the defense could avail of the appropriate remedies.

"Rodolfo is not under detention for capricious reasons, but to be tried for the murder of 15 victims," he said.

"All we ask Your Honors, is for this Honorable Court to allow the wheels of justice to run its course," he added. — RSJ, GMA News