Wife complains: Arrest ‘illegal’
THE wife of a suspected gunman in the shooting to death of a Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) district engineer yesterday asked the court to declare unlawful her husband’s arrest.
Nanette Jane Garcia, wife of Rene, the alleged gunman of DPWH district engineer Ciriaco Salazar, filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus before the Regional Trial Court, seeking a court order to force law enforcers to present her husband.
Nanette Jane, through her lawyer Giovanni Luna, said her husband’s arrest by the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) was illegal because they didn’t have an arrest warrant.
Luna said Garcia’s arrest was no longer part of a hot pursuit operation, since he was arrested nearly 100 hours after the crime was committed.
“To simply effect arrest to anyone, like (Rene) Garcia, on the sole basis of police discretion and without the imprimatur of the judge to an orderly implementation of our laws; the same is akin to anarchy,” the petition said.
She also wants the court to suppress the items seized from their house, so these cannot be used as evidence.
Named respondents to the petition were Supt. Pablo, Chief Insp. George Ylanan, Insp. Vicente Velasquez, Insp. Genilo Veraque, SPO1 Edado Borras, SPO1 Filomino Mendaros, PO3 Raymundo Supatan, PO2 Philip Ray Alcazar, PO2 Philip Plasus, PO2 Dennis Mosqueda, PO1 Esmeralda Quillosa, PO1 Michael Maucesa and “all police officers stationed at the CCPO.”
Cebu City Assistant Prosecutor Rogelio del Prado recently recommended the filing of a murder charge against Garcia and Norman Agbay, the driver of the motorcycle allegedly used as the getaway vehicle.
Salazar was driving his red Isuzu Crosswind when the gunman opened fire at his vehicle in Barangay Talamban, Cebu City last Aug.5.
Although Garcia admitted to the crime, he said his intended target was the victim’s wife Dolores, who fired him from his job.
In her petition, Nanette Jane said police officers, without an arrest warrant, arrested her husband early last July 9 in their residence in Barangay Talamban.
At the police station, Nanette Jane said her husband was “mauled and subjected to other physical pain, not to mention repeated psychological violence, all for the purpose of extracting information from him.”
While the suspect was at the police station, Nanette Jane said some police officers returned to their house to conduct a search.
Police confiscated a .45 pistol and mobile phones, among others, she said.