Thursday, August 28, 2008 Arraignment of kidnap-slay suspects deferred
A PASAY court on Wednesday postponed the arraignment of a former Cavite town vice mayor and three others, including an officer of the elite police Special Action Force (SAF), who are facing charges of kidnapping with murder.
Pasay Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 119 Judge Pedro Gutierrez put off the arraignment of former Dasmariñas, Cavite vice mayor Victor Carungcong and four others for the killing of retired pilot Demosthenes Cañete and his driver Allan Garay in Cavite on June 27, 2008.
The other accused present during the hearing were Police Chief Inspector Exequiel Cautiver and his wife Penelope; Alejandro Entolizo Jr., a barangay tanod (watchman) in Makati City; and Gary Pateo, a pedicab driver from Makati City.
Penelope is also a police major.
Exequiel and another policeman Ric Selga pleaded not guilty to the charges during their arraignment last month.
Gutierrez gave the defense lawyers five to 10 days to file separate motions to comment on the request of the Department of Justice (DOJ) for reinvestigation.
Meanwhile, tension erupted outside the courtroom when Cañete's daughter Joann Chan, a lawyer, approached a TV crew who happened to be interviewing a defense lawyer.
Defense lawyer Evangeline Malabanan was infuriated when Chan suddenly approached the GMA-7 television crew, shouting: "they are murderers" while she was being interviewed after Wednesday's hearing.
Chan and other members of the Cañete family were crying in front of the TV camera showing a picture of Demosthenes and his children, saying "Hindi namin masabi sa mga bata na pinatay ng mga 'hayop' na iyan ang kanilang ama (We can't say to our kids that these 'animals' killed their father)."
"They should be put into jail. They are professional kidnappers. We look forward to the day when all those who conspired in this crime will be locked behind bars for good," said Chan.
But Malabanan dismissed the claim of the Cañete family, saying: "It's only a trial by publicity. They don't even have solid evidence against my client."
"We filed a motion before the court, with the six-page report of the Commission on Human Rights which reported that the Police Anti-Crime and Emergency Response (Pacer) tortured my client," she added.
Malabanan stressed that Pacer policemen turned her client into a "pig" for him to admit the crime.
"They have violated the right of my client (Exequiel)," she said, adding that she has the document from the CHR to prove her claim.
The lawyer for Carungcong and other accused filed a motion for deferment of arraignment, while Malabanan, lawyer for the Cautiver couple, filed a separate motion for reinvestigation and a motion to quash the case, saying the prosecution panel "has no solid evidence against their client."
The court earlier issued warrants of arrest for the eight accused. It also denied bail to all accused.
The court reset the arraignment on October 8, 2008.
In a related development, police are in pursuit of two more suspects in the crime, identified as Mariano de Leon Jr. alias Spider and another policeman Reniel Abogado.
Anti-crime advocates and friends of the two victims have raised a P300,000 reward for two fugitives.
The accused abducted the victims in Barangay Sabang in Dasmariñas, Cavite and demanded a P20-million ransom from Cañete's family.
Authorities set up an entrapment operation in Malibay, Pasay City on June 4, the day Cañete's relatives scheduled to pay the ransom, which at that time has already been trimmed down by the suspects to P973,000.
Entolizo and Pateo were arrested in the operation. A few hours later, Exequiel was likewise captured.
Exequiel, a graduate of the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA) Class of 1996, pointed at Carungcong as the mastermind in the abduction. (AH/Sunnex)
