THE Court of Appeals (CA) has given the trial court the go signal to hear and resolve the P5.4-million damage suit filed by the protestant United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) against former President and now Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of Pampanga.
The suit was filed in connection with the alleged extrajudicial killings of five UCCP members and the abduction of another priest. The suit cited the killings and abduction occurred between 2003 and 2006.
In a 16-page decision penned by Associate Justice Victor Isabel Paredes, the CA’s Seventh Division denied Arroyo’s petition seeking the reversal of the decision issued by the Regional Trial Court in Quezon City in January 2012. The QC RTC denied her motion to dismiss the civil suit.
The UCCP insisted that Arroyo is liable for damages as she failed “either by commission or omission, either by manifest negligence or by culpable acts” to fulfill her duties as president and commander in chief of the country’s armed forces.
The UCCP is represented by Bishop Reuel Norman Marigza and six UCCP families as plaintiffs. They claimed it was during Arroyo’s term that counterinsurgency plan Oplan Bantay Laya (OBL) was conceived.
Under OBL, the UCCP were among the society and church organizations identified as front organizations of the Communist Party of the Philippines and, thus, targets for neutralization by the military.
The UCCP said in the course of the OBL’s implementation, several pastors, leaders and members were killed, harassed, unlawfully detained or tortured by alleged military agents who were under Arroyo’s control and command responsibility.
The CA held there was no grave abuse of discretion on the part of the trial court when it denied Arroyo’s motion to dismiss the case on the ground that the complaint failed to state a cause of action against her as it does not contain any sufficient allegation about her actual role on the OBL.
Arroyo also claimed that the UCCP lacks cause of action against her on the ground there is damnum absque injuria or loss without injury. She also claimed the complaint is a suit against the state and that the UCCP leaders do not have any cause of action for any alleged act on her part in the performance of her official duties as president and commander in chief.
The CA said based on its perusal of the complaint, its shows that it sufficiently states a cause of action as it states that victims of extrajudicial killings, who are members of the UCCP and family members of its leaders, have a right against forcible abduction, illegal arrests, detention and torture. Likewise, the CA said it is the duty of the petitioner to respect such right. The CA added that the petitioner violated such right when she ordered the implementation of OBL, which led to the extrajudicial killings, disappearances and other illegal acts.
“Since it is apparent that evidence has yet to be presented before the RTC and any question of fact resolved through stipulations, the RTC’s denial of the motion to dismiss on the ground of lack of cause of action was proper,” the CA said.
The CA added that Arroyo’s defenses can be passed upon and threshed out in a full-blown trial on the merits and not in a motion to dismiss.
“Clearly, the RTC’s denial of petitioner’s motion to dismiss and motion for reconsideration, were neither whimsical nor capricious. Petitioner, in praying for the issuance of the writ of certiorari, has failed to discharge the burden of proving grave abuse of discretion on the part of the RTC in accord with the definition and standards set by law and jurisprudence,” the CA ruled
Concurring with the ruling were Associate Justices Magdangal de Leon and Elihu Ybanez.