Abadilla Five' to seek SC reconsideration on life terms

The five men sentenced to life terms for the killing of former Col. Rolando Abadilla in 1996 will ask the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision upholding their conviction.

The Hong Kong-based rights group Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) said the five will exhaust all legal remedies available to them.

On September 7, the SC voted 10-4, upholding the ruling of the Court of Appeals (CA) on April 1, 2008 convicting the five accused: Lenido Lumanog, Augusto Santos, Cesar Fortuna, Rameses de Jesus and Joel de Jesus.

They were found guilty for the murder of Abadilla on June 13, 1996.

The accused's lawyers learned of the SC ruling only on September 15.

"The accused will be filing a Motion for Reconsideration (MR) to ask the SC to reconsider its decision," AHRC said in its website.

While it did not give further details, the AHRC said the Rules of Court give the Abadilla Five, 15 days to file an MR after receiving the SC decision.

It said the SC's decision can only be final and executory when the appellant will forego the filing of a motion or when their MR would be dismissed by the SC.

AHRC had raised concerns on what it called the lack of transparency and the long delay on part of the Supreme Court to resolve the Petition for Review on Certiorari of the Abadilla Five filed on May 5, 2008.

The SC held that the Positive Identification by Freddie Alejo, the lone witness of the case, of the accused "is sufficient to support a conviction for murder against appellants." –VVP, GMANews.TV