BOHOL Provincial Board Member Niño Rey Boniel and the family members of his late wife will face off today during the arraignment of his parricide case before the Regional Trial Court in Lapu-Lapu City.
Amando Virgil Ligutan, the prosecution’s lead counsel, confirmed yesterday the family members of slain Bien Unido Mayor Gisela Boniel are attending the arraignment of Boniel’s parricide case before Judge Ferdinand Collantes.
Collantes, of the Regional Trial Court branch 65 inLapu-Lapu City, scheduled today the arraignment of the Bohol official and his co-accused, Willy Hoylar and Restituto Magoncia, for murder.
The cases against Boniel and his co-accused continue in court after resigned Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre granted in March the prosecution’s motion for reconsideration. At first, Justice Undersecretary Reynante Orceo had ordered the withdrawal of the case information against the accused.
In his 12-page resolution dated Jan. 29, 2018, Undersecretary Orceo granted the petition for review filed by Boniel, who sought to reverse the resolution by the Office of the Lapu-Lapu City Prosecutor, which indicted him for parricide.
Orceo had “reversed and set aside” the resolution indicting Boniel for parricide and directed the Lapu-Lapu City Prosecutor’s Office to withdraw the parricide charge sheet, which was raffled to the sala of Judge Collantes.
Apart from Boniel, Orceo also directed the prosecutors to withdraw the murder case against Boniel’s two co-accused.
In their pleading, the prosecution said the parricide case cannot be considered a complex crime of kidnapping since the two crimes involved two different victims and occurred in two places. (GMD)