Tuesday, September 04, 2007 Kidnap raps vs cop up for resolution By Rhodamae M. Hernandez
THE City Prosecutor’s Office will be resolving the kidnapping case filed against a policeman, his uncle, a retired police officer's son, and some other co-accused even without the three men's counter-affidavit.
City Prosecutor Victor Dumlao, who is assigned to handle the case, said ample time has been given for the three to submit their counter-affidavits and he was given only until September 6, 2007, to resolve the case.
"When I checked the records, wala pa ring counter affidavit, e matagal na nag-issue ng order ang court telling them to submit," Dumlao said in an interview.
Dumlao said under that order, he was given 30 days to resolve the case, which ends on Thursday.
The accused, Police Officer 2 Kit Michael Sanz, traffic investigator of the Tugbok Police, his uncle Angelito Ventura Froilan and Wendel Asentista are accused of kidnapping a gasoline station owner, Edgar Barroso, on July 8 in Panacan, Davao City.
The accused earlier submitted a very urgent motion to quash information and for the conduct of preliminary investigation claiming that their arrest was illegal.
The motion said their warrantless arrest 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.
The accused in their motions pointed out that the arrest and conduct of inquest proceedings were borne out of the statements of Booc, which are inadmissible in court for being hearsay and even self-serving because there was no opportunity for the accused to confront their accusers.
