THE legal counsel for the accused Leonardo Felonia replied to the comment of the Davao City Police Office on their motion to show cause for the non-compliance of DCPO to the court’s order to transport the accused to Quezon City.
Lawyer Caesar Europa, the legal counsel for the accused Felonia who was tagged in Cebu-based businessman Richard King’s death, submitted a reply last October 6 on the DCPO’s comment regarding their recently filed motion.
DCPO director Vicente Danao Jr. reportedly commented that Felonia’s legal counsel had misinterpreted his failure to transport accused Felonia as he has no intentions of defying the orders of the court.
Danao, according to the reply, asserted further that “bringing accused Felonia to Quezon City without a specific RTC branch might be an opportunity for the [accused] to escape and that he could not comply with the order as there was no specific branch [indicated on it].”
That was also what Danao told the media in the previous interview where he said that they could not risk bringing Felonia to Quezon City without knowing where to exactly deliver him.
"It's like dribbling a ball nahindimoalam kung saang court iso-shoot (It's like dribbling a ball where you do not know which court to shoot)," Danao told the media in the previous interview pertaining to the order issued by RTC-Branch 16 presiding Judge Emmanuel Carpio.
Europa, however, stated in his reply that “it should be remembered that accused Felonia voluntarily surrendered right after the issuance of the warrants for his arrest by the court,” explaining further that if the accused would want to escape, he could have done it in the beginning.
Europa also asserted in the reply that Danao had no authority to decide for himself to hold his compliance to the court’s order to transport Felonia to Quezon City RTC and to interpret the Resolution of the Supreme Court which partially grants the petition for change of venue filed by the accused. (RCP)