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Friday, September 30, 2005
Lawyer gripes: No warrant for arrest, no charges filed
One suspect in a bank robbery in Bogo was caught without a warrant and remains detained even if no charges have been filed against him, his lawyer said yesterday.
Lawyer Salvador Solima filed a petition for habeas corpus, in behalf of 31-year-old Masbate resident Isagani Chico, before the Cebu Regional Trial Court (RTC).
Chico was arrested together with Dindo Ancero and Felix Albores in Kabungahan, Kawayan, Masbate last Sept. 20, for his alleged involvement in the P9.4-million Land Bank of the Philippines robbery last Aug. 2 in Bogo, Cebu.
Solima said his client is being detained upon orders of Acting Cebu Provincial Police Director Vicente Loot and Chief Insp. Juanito Enguerra, despite the absence of an arrest warrant.
He also argued that Chico has not been included in the robbery in band case that the police filed before the RTC in Bogo town.
Show him
“Such restraint of liberty of Isagani Chico by the respondents is purely illegal considering that there is no warrant issued for his arrest and that he is not one of those charged,” Solima said in his two-page petition.
Solima wants the judge to direct Loot and Enguerra to appear in court, bringing Chico with them, and to show cause for Chico’s continued detention at the Lapu-Lapu City jail.
After the proceedings, he wants the court to order Chico’s discharge from confinement.
Solima likewise represents Ceferino Serbano, who surrendered to RTC Executive Judge Simeon Dumdum Jr. last Sept. 26 to post a cash bail of P200,000.
Serbano, together with Henry Cuerda and Joseph Ancajas, is among the original batch of suspects charged with the robbery.
Cuerda, a security guard of Land Bank Bogo, and Ancajas, a former Army man, were arrested in Cebu last month.
Cuerda is now detained at the National Bureau of Investigation 7(NBI), while Ancajas is being held in the Bogo police station.
Ancajas had denied any involvement in the robbery. For his part, Cuerda had said he never saw Ancajas before.
Contact
But Cuerda had provided details of the heist to the police, as he was allegedly the robbers’ contact person in the bank.
Serbano, for his part, was impleaded after the police and the NBI traced the maroon Nissan Vanette (plate number CLA-333) to him. The van, which was parked near the Department of Public Works and Highways building in Bogo, was allegedly used as getaway vehicle.
Twelve men allegedly pulled off the heist that was reportedly hatched last April yet. (KNR)
(September 30, 2005 issue)
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