Philippine Tribunal Bars Aquino Verdict

The Supreme Court today barred a lower court from handing down a verdict in the Benigno S. Aquino murder trial until it rules on a petition asking for a mistrial in the case.

The decision came a day before the trial court was to announce its verdict in the trial of Armed Forces Chief Gen. Febian Ver and 25 others charged in the assassination of Aquino--President Ferdinand E. Marcos’ chief political rival.

Voting 9 to 2, the high tribunal issued the order “effective immediately and continuing until further orders from the court.”

Chief Justice Felix Makasiar and Associate Justice Ramon Aquino cast the dissenting votes. Within hours of the decision, state-run television reported that Marcos had appointed Justice Aquino to replace Makasiar, who retires Wednesday.

Marcos, breaking for the second time in four months a tradition of appointing the most senior justice as the chief justice, bypassed Associate Justice Claudio Teehankee, the court’s leading liberal. Ramon Aquino consistently has ruled in favor of the Marcos government.

Makasiar said the court will probably come to a decision on the petition for a mistrial by next week.

A group of 29 prominent Filipinos, contending the trial was a whitewash, argued before the high court Monday for a restraining order and petitioned for a mistrial.

During the proceedings, one justice chastised prosecutors for not pursuing evidence offered by the United States in the Aquino murder and said the mistrial petition contained “serious charges” that the prosecutor did not pursue all available leads in the killing.

Among evidence allegedly suppressed were affidavits of six U.S. Air Force men saying that Philippine officers sent up jets to intercept the commercial jetliner carrying Aquino from the United States. Aquino was shot dead as he stepped from the plane at Manila airport.

The petitioners said the affidavits could have bolstered claims of a military conspiracy in Aquino’s death.

Neither Justice Minister Estelito Mendoza nor Chief State Prosecutor Bernardo Fernandez objected to the request for a restraining order. But they denied the petition’s charges that they had acted with bias toward Ver and the 25 others on trial for Aquino’s murder.

Attorney Frank Cruz, who argued the case for the petitioners, said the restraining order was expected to prevent the case from becoming an issue in early presidential elections called by Marcos.