Tuesday, November 04, 2008 Hearing of case vs cop, pals in kidnap reset By Rhodamae M. Hernandez
THE Regional Trial Court (RTC) reset the initial hearing of the kidnapping and illegal detention charges filed against a former policeman, his uncle, a retired police officer's son, and some other co-accused on December 15.
RTC Branch 10 Presiding Judge Jose Emmanuel Castillo, in an order, reset the trial initially scheduled last October 28, 29 and 30 against Police Officer 2 Kit Michael Sanz, traffic investigator of the Tugbok Police, his uncle Angelito Ventura Froilan, and Wendel Asentista. They 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.
