THE mother of Christine Lee Silawan refused to sign an affidavit that would have been used as basis to file a complaint against Renato Llenes, the man who supposedly confessed to killing the teenager.
Lourdes Silawan set conditions to affixing her signature: 1) include Christine’s former boyfriend in the complaint, and 2) include rape in the charges against Llenes.
Without Lourdes’s signature, no complaint was filed against Llenes on Friday, April 12.
These were the updates on the Silawan case Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 Director P/Brig. Gen. Debold Sinas rolled out to the news media at the Lapu-Lapu City Prosecutor’s Office.
Meanwhile, Lapu-Lapu City Police Chief P/Col. Limuel Obon expressed hurt over allegations that Llenes’s arrest was “scripted” and that they were in a hurry to pin the crime on somebody just so they could claim the P2-million reward.
An emotional Obon said he and his men had stayed up nights to work on the Silawan case so that people “(could) appreciate” their effort to solve it.
More important than the public’s appreciation is the police solution of the case, Obon said.
At the ex-boyfriend’s front, his lawyer will push for the dismissal of the murder charge against the 18-year-old boy now that someone has owned up to the crime.
“It was very clear. (Llenes) made categorical statements that he felt guilty that while he solely committed the crime, someone else was arrested in his place,” lawyer Vincent Isles said.
Isles made the comment after the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7 said it would pursue its case against the boy despite Llenes’s admission of the crime.
For Isles, NBI 7 is only doing its job.
He reminded the NBI 7 that even with Llenes’s admission, it has only presented circumstantial evidence before the Lapu-Lapu City Prosecutor’s Office to support its case against his client.
The NBI arrested Christine’s ex-boyfriend, who was only 17 years old at the time, on suspicion that he was the “CJ Diaz” chatting with Christine on Facebook Messenger.
But Llenes, in his supposed admission of the crime, said he was “CJ Diaz” who chatted with Christine.
Llenes, 43, was arrested by police for violation of the election gun ban on April 10 in sitio Tigcahon, Barangay Bankal, Lapu-Lapu City.
This was also the same barangay where Christine Silawan was found dead half-naked and her face flayed on March 11.
The ex-boyfriend, who turned 18 this month, was arrested by the NBI on March 16.
Talking to reporters on Friday, PRO 7 Chief Sinas said it would be hard to agree to Lourdes Silawan’s conditions.
One, the police had no evidence on the ex- boyfriend to merit a case against him, Sinas said.
“Gusto niya iuban sa kaso katong boyfriend. We could not, kasi wala gyud ebidensiya didto,” Sinas said.
Two, Llenes could not be charged with rape because “in Llenes’s testimony, walay rape (there was no rape),” he said.
Besides, the autopsy report of the PNP Crime Laboratory said Christine was not raped, Sinas said.
But he and the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) “agreed to have a separate filing of attempted rape,” Sinas said.
The PRO 7 chief said he would persuade Christine’s mother to sign the affidavit based on the evidence the police have gathered.
“I believe and we believe and the PNP chief believes that we have a very strong case,” Sinas said.
Among the evidence the Lapu-Lapu City police have gathered are footage of the CCTV camera showing Christine’s whereabouts, t-shirt, a pair of scissors, cellular phone, and affidavits of witnesses and of Llenes detailing how he killed Christine. Llenes also reenacted the crime the day after his arrest.
Llenes said he as CJ Diaz with a profile picture of a young man and Christine had chatted for four to six months on Facebook Messenger. They agreed to meet up near the church of Barangay Pajac where Christine served as alms collector.
Llenes said he was high on drugs when they met and that he got angry when Christine turned him down for sex but got enraged when she slapped him. So he stabbed her with the scissors several times and Christine fought him off. He would have raped her, but he saw that she was already dead.
He flayed her face and threw the skin piece by piece in different areas. (with JKV/MPS)