THE Court of Appeals (CA) has denied the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG)'s petition prohibiting bail for Cebu-based lawyer-broadcaster Juril Patiño, who is accused of raping a 13-year-old girl in 2017. The CA said in its decision, the OSG acted 'with grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or more than jurisdiction.' In a 14-page ruling penned by Associate Justice Ronald Tolentino obtained by The Manila Times on Saturday, the CA's 18th Division dismissed the OSG's petition for certiorari. 'We must emphasize that the determination of the evidence in this Decision is only for the sole purpose of bail. Our Decision should not prejudice the submission of additional evidence for the prosecution to prove Juril's guilt in the main case. After all, a grant of bail does not prevent the trial court, as the trier of facts, from making a final assessment of the evidence after a full trial on the merits,' the CA said. Patiño, a broadcaster of Brigada News FM Cebu, was charged with rape under Article 266-A (1) of the Revised Penal Code in an amended information dated May 29, 2018, signed by the Cebu City Prosecutor, Rudolph Joseph Val Carrillo.
