Wednesday, October 11, 2006 Justice head reshuffles fiscals handling actress' slay case
JUSTICE remains elusive to the family of slain veteran actress Nida Blanca (Dorothy Jones in real life) even as her still unresolved death nears its sixth year on November 7 after the prosecution panel handling the case was again revamped.
In a Department Order 749, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez Sr. finally decided to remove Assistant Chief State Prosecutor Leah Tanodra-Armamento as head of the four-man panel handling the prosecution of principal accused Rod Lawrence Strunk, Blanca's husband, and confessed hitman Pedro Philip Medel in the murder case before the Pasig Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 156.
The case has been put on hold before the sala of Pasig RTC Judge Alex Quiroz following the government's failure to extradite Strunk back from the US to face indictments here.
Armamento was replaced by Senior State Prosecutor Theodore Villanueva, who was vice chairman of the panel. State Prosecutors Christine Perolino and Rolando Ramirez were retained as members of the panel.
This is the fourth time that a panel was constituted to handle the prosecution of the case. The first panel was chaired by Senior State Prosecutor Archimedes Manabat, but he was also asked to be relieved from the case.
Manabat was succeeded by Assistant Chief State Prosecutor Anthony Fadullon and then by Senior State Prosecutor Leo Dacera, before Armamento took over.
Gonzalez's decision to overhaul the panel was a complete turnabout from his earlier position denying the request of Blanca's daughter Kaye Torres seeking the removal of Armamento from the case.
Torres made the request following the discharge of former Court of Appeals (CA) Associate Justice Harriet Demetriou as her private counsel when their lawyer-client relationship had become "untenable." The complainant said Armamento continued to confer with Demetriou even if the Demetriou's services had already been terminated last August 9.
In lieu of Armamento's removal from the panel, Torres asked Gonzalez to designate instead Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuño as her replacement.
"I believe that he (Zuño) is the most competent to effectively handle the prosecution of the Nida Blanca case," she said.
The strained relationship between Torres and Demetriou came after Blanca's long-time personal assistant, Elena dela Paz, was implicated in the murder in November 2001 and was indicted as accessory to the crime.
Torres earlier asked Gonzalez last August 2 to drop the charges against dela Paz,saying she does not believe that her surrogate aunt could have been involved in the killing of her mother.
Dela Paza has worked for Blanca as the late actress' trusted aide for 45 years.
Prosecutors indicted and filed last June 28 charges against dela Paz as accessory of principal accused Rod Strunk in the murder of Blanca.
Blanca's body was found inside a vehicle parked at the office of the Movie Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) office in Atlanta Center in Greenhills, San Juan on Nov. 7, 2001.
Dela Paz was indicted in the killing of Blanca on the basis of the testimony of prosecution witness Rannie Francisco, who claimed that he saw dela Paz when she fetched Blanca from her office on the night of the killing.
Last September 11, the entire prosecution panel handling the Blanca case asked to be relieved from the case to pave the way for the creation of a new one, citing the need for a smooth relationship between prosecutors and complainant. (ECV/Sunnex)
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