COUNSEL SPEAKS | Why the Tiamzons refused to enter any plea

From InterAksyon (Apr 10): COUNSEL SPEAKS | Why the Tiamzons refused to enter any plea

On Tuesday, Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria, the couple said to head the Communist Party of the Philippines, and five others captured with them in Cebu province last month refused to enter pleas at their arraignment on kidnapping and serious illegal detention charges before the Quezon City regional trial court.
The charges date back to 1988.

Their refusal prompted the judge to enter “not guilty” pleas on their behalf.

This is the explanation of lawyers Rachel Pastores of the People’s Interest Law Center and Edre Olalia of the National Union of People’s Lawyers, who are defending the accused, for the refusal to enter pleas to what they say are “trumped up” charges:

1. The basic constitutional right of the accused to be informed meaningfully of the nature and cause of the very serious accusations against them override any short, but reasonable, deferment of their arraignment for another date.

2. Procedural statutory grounds, much less administrative issues of court calendar schedules, should not override the interest of substantial justice in order to rush, if not railroad, a fundamental stage of any legitimate trial like arraignment that should not be a mere empty ritual.

3. The Tiamzons are entitled the reasonable opportunity to enter a free, voluntary and intelligent plea as well as to avail of all legal remedies that may be lost if arraigned improvidently.

4. The Tiamzon spouses and their lawyers were notified only of this "new" case of "kidnapping with serious illegal detention" the late afternoon of the day prior to the arraignment set the following early morning.

5. The archived case files, which have been unearthed from the dusty and musty court cabinets only recently and upon the instigation of the military comprise seven (7) folders measuring a foot high, which neither the Tiamzons nor their present lawyers have seen before let alone studied and analyzed.

6. The alleged incident turns out to date back 1988, making any instant and accurate recollection of the alleged facts and circumstances foggy at best as to sufficiently enable the accused to put up a defense.

7. The charges appear to be resurrected cases on top of many others the State will produce, manufacture or surface, all designed to persecute, criminalize and demonize genuine freedom fighters seeking fundamental changes in society.

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/84507/counsel-speaks--why-the-tiamzons-refused-to-enter-any-plea