LAOAG CITY—Acquitting former Ilocos Norte Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas of arbitrary detention, the Court of Appeals has reversed itself and set aside two lower court decisions which earlier found Fariñas guilty of the charge filed by his former driver and security in 1991.

In an amended decision, the Appellate Court set aside its own decision on September 27, 2004 upholding Fariñas’ conviction by the Metropolitan Trial Court and Regional Trial Court both of Quezon City.

The Quezon City MTC and RTC earlier found the former solon guilty as charged in their decisions dated April 10, 2002 and January 16, 2003 respectively.

But in its April 14 decision penned by Associate Justice Martin Villarama, the CA set aside its original findings and acquitted Fariñas of the charge due to reasonable doubt.

Associate Justices Edgardo Sundiam and Japar Dimaampao concurred with Villarama.

“Reasonable doubt means not a single iota of doubt remains present in the mind of a reasonable and unprejudiced man that a person is guilty of a crime,” wrote Villarama in his decision.

“In instances where doubt exists, even if only a shred, the Court must and should set the accused free,” he said.

Villarama added, “It matters not that the accused in this case is a prominent public official who may have been cast by media - fairly or unfairly – in the mold of a traditional politician, so to speak.”

In a long-drawn case spanning 14 years since 1991, the CA based its reversal from the failure of complainant Juan Dionisio Bona, Jr., to explain satisfactorily the delay in charging Fariñas of arbitrary detention.

Bona then claimed in 1989 that then Governor Fariñas locked him up for two days and three nights without food and water inside the provincial capitol’s vault.

Bona filed the complaint only in 1991 citing that fear of someone (like Fariñas) made him think 50 times before filing criminal charges.

PIA Ilocos News Service