By Rey E. Requejo

Two members of the Reform the Armed Forces Movement are not immune from prosecution for the complex crime of kidnapping with murder of labor leader Rolando Olalia and his driver Leonor Alay-ay 23 years ago, according to the Supreme Court.

The Court’s second division upheld the Dec. 29, 1999 ruling of the Court of Appeals that dismissed the claim of RAM members Eduardo Kapunan Jr. and Oscar Legaspi that their criminal liability had been extinguished by the amnesty granted to them under Proclamation 347 issued in 1994 by then President Fidel Ramos.

In a decision written by Associate Justice Dante Tinga, the court said it is satisfied that there is a prima facie evidence for the prosecution of Kapunan and Legaspi for the kidnapping-murders of Olalia and Alay-ay. “The arguments that petitioners are exempt from prosecution on account of the grants of amnesty they had received are ultimately without merit, on account of the specified limitation in the said grant of amnesty,” the high court stressed.

The amnesty granted to Kapunan extends to acts constituting only one crime, that is rebellion, while the certificate of amnesty issued to Legaspi is limited to his offenses connected with his participation in the 1987 and 1989 coup attempts, the high court explained.

According to the tribunal, the murders of Olalia and Alay-ay do not indicate that these have been done as part of the rebellion against the Aquino administration.

To justify his claim for immunity, Kapunan cited the final report of the Davide Commission, which held that political assassinations, such as the murders of Olalia and Alay-ay, could have been part of the simulated events that were intended to create an unstable situation favorable for a coup.

The high court said the final report of the Davide Commission, which was tasked to investigate all the facts and circumstances of the failed coup of December 1989, cannot be considered conclusive and binding to the Court.

Kapunan, now a consultant with the Department of Transportation and Communications, and Legaspi elevated their case to the Court of Appeals after the Department of Justice thumbed down their defense of amnesty. Pending the appeal, the Justice Department sued them before the Antipolo Regional Trial Court, Branch 17 for the kidnap-slay of Olalia and Alay-ay.

The Justice Department said that Olalia and Alay-ay were seized on the night of Nov. 12, 1986 along Julia Vargas Ave. in Pasig, brought to a safe house in Cubao and then to a secluded area in Antipolo City where their bodies were found riddled with bullets. On March 18, 1998, a Justice panel recommended the filing of murder charges against Kapunan, Legaspi and 11 other individuals.

The high tribunal stressed that the petitioners should present evidence before the trial court that the killings of Olalia and Alay-ay were connected with the 1987 or 1991 coup attempts.

The absence of immediate rebellion following the killings of the labor leader and his driver triggers doubts as to the claim of the two these were part of the plot to overthrow the Aquino administration, the high court said.