Successfully Argued To Stop My Arraignment in Hagedorn Libel I am reporting to my friends and supporters, especially those who donated funds for the round-trip plane tickets for me and my aide for my hearing today at Puerto Princesa RTC. My impression was that the judge wanted to arraign me at all cost. When I spoke before the court, I apprised the judge that I filed two motions for reconsideration -- First against the courts determination of probable cause that according to it I committed a crime of libel; Second against the order of the court cancelling my bail and issuing new warrant of arrest against me. The judge at first said she will rule right there and then on my motions and will now read the charge of libel against me. I stood firm in defense of my right as an accused that: (1) the court cannot compel me to be arraigned immediately at that moment because the right to speedy trial belongs to the accused and not to the court or the prosecution and I as the accused was waiving it to give way to resolution of my two motions; (2) the court cannot make a ruling verbally because no one can make an intelligent appeal for no one can assure good memory to recall the reasons stated verbally and without proof in writing as to the existence of the order to be challenged; (3) that it will be improper to rule on the motions when the other party (Hagedorn) has not yet filed its opposition and when the other party was claiming it was not given a copy of one of the two motions. After hearing my crisp voice and arguments, the judge mellowed down and surrendered. She then directed the prosecutor to file its comments in 15 days and granted me equal number of days to respond to the prosecutors opposition. Then the judge cancelled the arraignment and rescheduled it tentatively for 12 January 2014. I won the first round. I argued in my motion that there is no probable cause of libel because the two answers I gave to the radio broadcaster interviewing me were only opinions of what would be the logical consequence if Hagedorn can explain the case I filed against him before the Ombudsman -- where my answer was that Hagedorn will be saved if he can explain, which answer I followed up with a statement that all public officials must state alll their wealth in their repective SALNs.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Sep 2014 03:20:52 +0000
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