Appendix 2.9: Excerpts from Generoso N. Subayco, Alfredo T. Alcalde, and Eleuterio O. Ibaez, petitioners, vs. Sandiganbayan and People of the Philippines, respondents, G.R. Nos. 117267–117310, 22 August 1996

Abstract

The full title of this criminal case is Generoso N. Subayco, Alfredo T. Alcalde, and Eleuterio O. Ibaez, petitioners, vs. Sandiganbayan and People of the Philippines, respondents. It can also be called the Escalante Massacre case. The decision was penned by Justice Reynato S. Puno. It does not state when the adverse Sandiganbayan decision against the accused (Subayco, Alcalde, and Ibaez, all members of the Philippine Constabulary, or PC) was rendered, though a footnote indicates that that decision was promulgated within or after 1987. Originally, forty-five “civilian government officials, personnel from the Philippine Constabulary and the Integrated National Police [INP], and from the para-military group Civilian Home Defense Force” were charged for the Escalante Massacre. Due to the death of one of the accused and the fact that “others remained at large,” only twenty-eight—all members of the PC and the INP—were arrested and tried. Only the three petitioners in this case were convicted, specifically of sixteen counts of murder, ten counts of frustrated murder, and fourteen counts of attempted murder. The others who were tried were acquitted because “the evidence against [them was found] to be insufficient to establish their liability.”