Wednesday, July 25, 2007 2 more kidnap suspects claim arrest was illegal By Rhodamae M. Hernandez
TWO more suspects in the abduction of a gasoline station owner in Panacan, Davao City asked the court to release them pending the conclusion of the preliminary investigation.
In a very urgent motion to quash information and for the conduct of preliminary investigation, PO2 Kit Michael Froilan Sanz, traffic investigator of the Tugbok Police, and his uncle Angelito Ventura Froilan said they were arrested in July 14 without warrant for their alleged participation in the kidnapping of Edgar Barroso on July 8.
The motion said the warantless arrests of the two accused came four days after the rescue operation of the victim and that the arrests were merely based on the statements of Marvin Digamon Booc who happened to be one of the accused.
The motion pointed out that the arrest of a person based on the statements of another person and four days after the alleged commission of the crime is highly irregular and relies only on hearsay.
They said after the arrest and the questioning, they were not allowed to go home and were placed under detention. And it is also mandatory that the person doing the arrest must have a personal knowledge of certain facts indicating that the person to be taken into custody has committed the crime.
The resolution, it added, throws no doubt on the innocence of the accused because it failed to show the existence of probable cause to indict the accused for kidnapping.
The irregularities in the arrest and in the conduct of the inquest proceedings were borne out of the statements of Booc whose statements are inadmissable for being hearsay and perhaps self-serving because there was no opportunity for the two accused to confront their accusers.
For this reason, the two accused invoked their constitutional right to due process and their statutory right to preliminary investigation.
And since their arrests are not valid and is based on a resolution which is insufficient in evidence, it is moved that the two accused be released.
Earlier, one of the suspects, Wendel Asentista, the son of a retired policeman, also claimed illegal arrest and sought that he be released.
