By Czarina Ong Ki The criminal charges filed against the seven Army and police officials allegedly involved in the illegal detention of the Morong 43 health workers have been dismissed by the Sandiganbayan due to the insufficiency of the prosecution's evidence against them. The anti-graft court's Seventh Division promulgated on July 1 to grant the demurrer to evidence of Lt. Gen. Jorge Segovia, retired Maj. Gen. Aurelio Baladad, Brig. Gen. Joselito Reyes, Col. Cristobal Zaragoza, Police Supt. Marion Balonglong, Police Supt. Allan Nobleza, and Police Chief Insp. Jovily Cabading. "At this point it is apt to reiterate and emphasize that a demurrer to evidence is a motion to dismiss on the ground of insufficiency of evidence," the resolution read. "Hence, the Court finds the evidence adduced by the prosecution insufficient to sustain the indictment or to support a verdict of guilt thus, warranting the dismissal of the herein cases." The Army and police officials were initially slapped with eight charges of violation of Section 4(b) of R.A. 7438, which is an act defining certain rights of person arrested, detained or under custodial investigation as well as the duties of the arresting officers. Section 4(b) does not allow officials to keep detained individuals from conferring with his or her lawyer, relative, doctor, or even a spiritual adviser. On March 5, 2019, the court allowed them to file a demurrer to evidence. They did so on March 22, arguing that it was incumbent upon the prosecution to prove that the complainants had a lawyer of his or her own choice during the time of their arrest. However, the testimonies of the complainants revealed that they never informed the accused officials the name of their counsel of choice. They did not even have a lawyer in mind when they were detained from February 6 to 10, 2010. The lawyers from National Union of Peoples' Lawyers (NUPL) and Public Interest Law Centre (PILC), who were reportedly prevented from entering Camp Capinpin, were not even requested by the complainants, the court said. At the same time, the accused said the prosecution was unable to prove how they acted in conspiracy to detain the health workers. They said they had legitimate reasons to tighten their security, since there were 43 health workers suspected of being members of the New People's Army (NPA). For its part, the anti-graft court agreed with the accused that the prosecution failed to discharge its burden of proving that the Army and police officials committed the crime charged beyond reasonable doubt. The prosecution should have produced evidence proving that the accused prohibited private complainants from conferring with their counsel of choice. Also, the prosecution should have established that the complainants had counsels of choice at the time of their arrest. However, there was a discrepancy in their allegations in the charge sheets and their testimonies. The prosecution witnesses testified that the lawyers from NUPL and PILC were prevented from seeing the detainees, but it was never established that these lawyers were the complainants' counsels of choice. When the witness, Roneo Clamor, was asked who chose Atty. Ephraim Cortez to represent the 43 detainees, he admitted that he was the one who chose him. "This contradicts the allegation in the information that the lawyer was private complainants' lawyer of choice," the court ruled. Likewise, the court had to agree with the accused that their alleged conspiracy to commit the crime was never proven "with moral certainty. One of the complainants admitted that she did not hear or see the accused prohibit or prevent her from conferring with her counsel of choice. Another complainant said she recognized the accused's voices, but she was unable to pinpoint them. "Conspiracy must, like the crime itself, be proven beyond reasonable doubt," the court said. "Suppositions based on mere presumptions and not on solid facts do not constitute proof beyond reasonable doubt." The 39-page decision was written by Associate Justice Zaldy Trespeses with the concurrence of Chairperson Ma. Theresa Dolores Gomez-Estoesta and Associate Justice Georgina Hidalgo. The Morong 43 health workers were arrested back in February 2010, since officials claimed they were conducting explosives training in a house in Morong, Rizal. The Morong 43 health workers subsequently went on a hunger strike because the accused officials reportedly tortured, threatened, and deprived them of sleep. They also said the pieces of evidence used against them were planted. These complainants were Jane Beltran Balleta, Samson Castillo, Mercy Castro, Merry Mia Clamor, Gary Liberal, Reynaldo Macabenta, Alexis Montes, and Ma. Teresa Quinawayan.