Why I accepted the defense of Ricky Sta. Isabel

Joe Pallugna

I AM sure several eyebrows will be raised upon knowing that I accepted the criminal defense of SPO3 Ricky Sta. Isabel who is the primary suspect in the kidnapping and murder of Jee Ick Joo, the Korean businessman from Angeles City, Pampanga.

At the very outset, I wish the public to know that a case can never progress if the accused does not have a lawyer of his own choice as this right is guaranteed under the Constitution.

Thus, any accused, like Ricky Sta. Isabel, is entitled to a counsel of his own choice. And that happened to be me.

As has happened also, lawyering has been my chosen profession for over 25 years now.

But why did I accept the criminal defense of Ricky Sta. Isabel?

It is not only that all persons accused of a criminal offense are presumed innocent until proven by final judgment to be guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, for this is a lawyer’s cliche, but much, much more.

I understand and accept that it is a sensational case like the Allan Bigcas smuggling case which landed in the congressional inquiry because the Korean kidnapping case will be subjected to a Senate inquiry on Jan. 26, Thursday, under the Committee of Public Safety and Order of Sen. Panfilo Lacson with PNP Chief Bato dela Rosa and Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre in attendance. Yes, I admit that fact. It is a controversial and a dangerous case to defend.

I understand all the more that the pursuit of truth, the aspiration to know what really happened and who really did the heinous crime, become the common objective.

Yes, I have belief in what my client claims–that he is a mere “fall guy” in this case.

If what Sta. Isabel’s immediate superiors in the Anti illegal Drugs Group (AIDG) would like the public to accept, then I would help my client prove that they are wrong.

For how can a mere SPO3 implement a kidnapping of a foreigner, bring the victim right inside Camp Crame in Quezon City, murder the victim there, bring the cadaver out, demand and receive ransom of P5 million, and burn the body to ashes, if he is a mere lowly man in the police heirarchy?

The answer is–impossible!

It is only when there is a leader among the officers who plan, concoct, implement and oversee the entire heinous plan that it will ever be implemented successfully. That is what my client is saying. And I believe my client in this case.

And to delve deeper into the case is what counts most. To know the real truth and to prosecute the real criminals should be the objective. And the only way to do this is to provide the “fall guy” with more than adequate defense, with a serious defense strategy.

The real criminals are not yet charged as of today. A man was kidnapped and murdered, ransom was demanded and received by the criminals despite knowledge that the kidnap victim was already dead.

A husband and father was murdered and his ashes were flushed down a toilet bowl.

This is simply gut-wrenching and deplorable, to say the least. And to let the real criminals go scot-free and to jail and prosecute just the underlings is injustice twice over.

The re-investigation of this case and the inclusion of the real perpetrators of the crime in the criminal charges in court must be the only remedy here.

In one way or another, my client may be guilty. Or he may be innocent. But someone or somebody must be mightily guilty out there as a man was kidnapped and murdered.

And that is the very reason why I accepted this unpopular case of defending SPO3 Ricky Sta. Isabel. He sought my legal help. I have to provide him a competent defense so that the truth must come out.

I cannot just allow him to be ran over by the powerful police machinery, or by the evil innovativeness of his immediate superiors whom he claimed to have committed the crimes. I cannot let injustice run amuck in a brazen and arrogant way as that would embolden the criminals to commit more crimes.

In the life of a lawyer comes every opportunity to right a wrong, to help punish the guilty, to defend the innocent, and to ensure that justice prevails.

This is the case of Ricky Sta. Isabel.

E-mail: ajpallugna@gmail.com