The family of Jaime Masla, a 32-year-old mechanic, who was sentenced for murder last Christmas—eight months after he was invited by the Community Police Precinct in April for the killing of his friend, a variety store owner in P. Casal St., San Miguel, Manila, is seeking President Rodrigo Duterte’s help to intervene on his case.
According to court records, Masla was sentenced weeks before Christmas Day in 2016, but the promulgation had been reset by the court twice, because his private counsel did not appear in all four court hearings—up until the day the court promulgated its decision.
Transcription of the court proceeding indicated that the presiding judge had to appoint a “temporary counsel” for the accused in each of the four hearings that the defense counsel had been absent.
Masla’s family in Pikit, Cotabato had sent a letter asking for the President’s help that “true justice may prevail’ to their kin who, they believed, “was deprived of it.”
Masla’s father, Tong Lu Masla, said the first lawyer paid by the family had instead let his son sign a waiver of his right to petition for state prosecutors’ review of the fiscal’s “determination of probable cause”—which according to lawyers they had talked with, is a right of any accused under the Revised Penal Code.
Masla, who has yet to finish high school, told his family that he did not know the consequence of signing the document, on which his counsel and the fiscal also signed in concurrence.
Along with his records forwarded to the Court of Appeals of Manila, also included was the Police Crime Laboratory test results that stated Masla tested negative of gunpowder along with another “person-of-interest” invited by the community police precinct of San Miguel, the day the killing of the victim happened. The police promptly released the second person-of-interest.
Masla’s counsel also did not file a Motion-for-Reconsideration (MoR) before the Regional Trial Court that sentenced his client, even long after the “prescriptive period” within which an MoR is allowed.
The Maslas were able to seek help from another lawyer, who appealed the case before the CA.
The verdict has become “final and executory” in the level of the RTC, and has since been forwarded to the Court of Appeals. CA sources said the Tenth Division will hear the case, docketed CA G.R. CR HC No. 08860, and that the Office of the Solicitor-General would represent the RTC verdict in behalf of the government at the appellate court.
Masla has two young children—Norvie Masla, 12, a seventh grader who wrote the letter to the President, sells plastic bags at the Quinta Market in Quiapo, and Bunso, seven-year old, who goes with his mother Bainot, an ambulant vendor in Quinta Market and Plaza Miranda. The mother also works part-time as a waitress for an eatery nearby.
