FORMER Occidental Mindoro Rep. Ricardo Quintos has asked the Supreme Court to order the reinstatement of his former political rival, ex-congressman Jose Villarosa and three co-accused as respondents in the December 13, 1997 murders of his sons, Michael and Paul.

In a 64-page consolidated petition for certiorari, Quintos asked the SC to reverse the March 18, 2008 and August 27, 2008 rulings of the Court of Appeals acquitting Villarosa and co-accused Mario Tobias, Gelito Bautista and Ruben Balaguer for insufficiency of evidence.

Petitioners said the appellate court committed grave abuse of discretion when it ordered the acquittal of private respondents notwithstanding that their guilt for the brutal murders was proven beyond reasonable doubt by direct, positive and circumstantial evidence.

"The CA … ignored and overlooked other evidence on record showing the conspiracy of the private respondents with all the other accused to kill Michael and Paul Quintos and showing that Jose Villarosa is the mastermind of the conspiracy," Quintos added.

Quintos further said the CA erred in not applying the doctrine of interlocking confessions relative to the extra-judicial confessions by Eduardo Hermoso and Orlando Estanes as evidence to sustain the guilt of Villarosa and his alleged cohorts.

He said the CA merely relied on the mere defenses of alibi and denial by respondents, which should not have prevailed over the positive allegations of witnesses of the prosecution and other evidence on record.

The extra-judicial confessions executed by Hermoso and Estanes, the self-confessed killers, are admissible against private respondents, Quintos argued.

The assailed decision of the appellate court’s Fifth Division "affirmed in part and reversed in part" the February 3, 2006 ruling of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 81, convicting seven individuals, including Villarosa, for the murder of the Quintos brothers.

The CA decision paved the way for the release of Villarosa and his co-accused after finding that there was insufficient evidence to convict them of committing the crime of murder, unless the complainants elevate the case to the Supreme Court.

Aside from Villarosa, the CA acquitted Mamburao farmers Ruben Balaguer, Gelito Bautista and Mario Tobias, but convicted Eduardo Hermoso, Manolito Matricio and Josue Ungsod.