Tuesday, October 03, 2006 Mayor Soc instead shows retraction of complaint By Garry Cabotaje Sun.Star Staff Reporter
TALISAY City Mayor Socrates “Soc” Fernandez’s adopted son, Joavan, who stands accused in two separate criminal cases, did not show up yesterday at City Hall to turn himself in to local authorities.
Instead, it was the mayor who faced the media and waved the affidavits of desistance executed separately by three shooting victims—Timoteo Aleo, Edmund Ong, and Carlos dela Calzada.
Their affidavits cleared Joavan as the one responsible for the Aug. 29 twin shooting incidents in Barangays Cansojong and Dumlog that killed 49-year-old driver Panfilo Barinque.
Money
Local reporters from radio, TV and print were called to a press conference in the mayor’s office for the voluntary surrender of 23-year-old Joavan yesterday morning.
It never happened.
“I’m not protecting my son, I’m for justice and truth,” said Fernandez as he denied insinuations that the three victims recanted their statements against Joavan in exchange for monetary considerations.
Fernandez said the three wounded victims executed the affidavits “out of their own conviction without any influence from him or from any other persons.”
Despite Joavan’s absence, the mayor still assured that his son would surrender to the police even before the Regional Trial Court in Cebu City, where a murder case was filed for the death of Barinque, could release an arrest warrant.
The Talisay City Pro-secutor’s Office forwarded the murder case to the court last week, stating that Aleo’s positive identification of Joavan “far outweighs the defense of alibi by the respondent to establish probable cause.”
Meanwhile, Talisay City Police Station (TCPS) Chief Romeo Perigo was surprised to hear of the sudden change of heart of three shooting victims who earlier identified Joavan as the alleged gunman in the Aug. 29 twin shooting incidents.
No sign
“Of course it’s normal that we would be surprised, but in our investigation there was no sign at all then that they would recant their earlier statements,” Perigo said.
Perigo insisted that his investigators followed the proper procedures in the investigation and filing of the case at the prose-cutor’s office.
Aleo, who filed a frustrated murder complaint, identified Joavan as the one who shot him and Barinque while they were in the vicinity of Magla-sang Village in Barangay Can-sojong around 3:30 a.m. a.m.
Barinque’s widow also filed a murder case against Joavan with Aleo as the primary witness. The court is expected to release the arrest warrant this week.
Ong, who filed a separate frustrated murder case, also identified Joavan as one of two gunmen who shot him and dela Calzada while they were hanging out at a roadside burger stand in Barangay Dumlog 20 minutes later.
Of the three victims, it was Aleo who first executed an affidavit of desistance last Sept. 4. It was sworn before Cebu Assistant Prosecutor Napoleon Alburo.
“That when I signed the affidavit I was still in the state of shock and now that I am already in a stable condition, I realized that I pointed to a wrong person which is the accused,” read Aleo’s statement.
Aleo added that he would no longer pursue the frustrated murder case against Joavan “out of Christian charity and pity to the said accused.”
Dela Calzada and Ong also issued two separate affidavits of desistance, dated Sept. 4 and 28, respectively.
Dela Calzada, in the new affidavit, declared that Joavan, whom police brought to him for identification, was not the gunman. He also subscribed his affidavit before Alburo.
For his part, Ong, who filed a separate frustrated murder case against Joavan, stated that he “is no longer interested to pursue or prosecute” his complaint or testify against the latter.
“That I heretofore pray before this Honorable Office that the instant proceedings against Joavan Fernandez be dismissed,” the affidavit, which was sworn before Talisay City Prosecutor Marshall Rubia, read.
With these three affidavits, Perigo believes these could weaken the criminal cases against Joavan, especially that Aleo and Ong have been considered as two vital witnesses.
“All we have to do now is to look for other witnesses. We are also hunting down the two other companions of the gunman,” said Perigo.
