THE Office of the Cebu City Prosecutor has resolved the criminal charges against the two lawyers whom the police picked up from a pension house in Barangay Mabolo, Cebu City last April 29 on suspicions of having an illicit affair.
Prosecutor Maria Theresa Casiño, the office’s spokesperson, confirmed that Prosecutor Aurora Peñaflor issued a resolution on the complaints for concubinage and violating the Anti-Violence Against Women and their Children Act of 2004 (Republic Act 9262) against the respondents.
Peñaflor’s resolution was approved by City Prosecutor Liceria Lofranco-Rabillas.
But Casiño begged off from confirming whether the resolution was for dismissal of the complaint, or an indictment of the respondents.
“There is no proof yet that the respondents already received a copy of the resolution,” she told Sun.Star Cebu.
Casiño said copies of the resolution were sent via registered mail to the respondents or their counsels.
“Wendy,” a lawyer, charged her husband-lawyer and his alleged lover with concubinage and violation of the Anti-Violence Against Women and their Children Act of 2004 (Republic Act 9262) by causing her “psychological and emotional abuse.”
Chief Insp. Wildemar Tiu, who heads Police Station 4, said Wendy, 34, called the police and asked them to arrest her husband “Liam,” also 34, and “Eliza,” 26, who is also a lawyer. (These are not their real names.)
Search
In her affidavit, Wendy said she began looking for her husband after 7 p.m. last April 29, when he failed to answer her texts and calls, and saw his car parked outside a pension house near their workplace. She said that earlier that night, her husband kept texting her to ask where she was.
She recalled texting him around 7 p.m. and asking him to call her. No answer. She called. Still no answer.
“I was very worried and horrified about what he was doing. I couldn’t understand my feeling. It gave me an idea that my husband was doing something wrong,” Wendy said in her affidavit.
She decided to check the hotels near their law office, then saw his vehicle outside the New Era Cebu Pension Inn.
Wendy said she checked the guest book, she found her husband and the other lawyer’s names. They had reportedly checked in at 7 p.m.
Escape
The police said that in the nearly 11 hours between the start of Wendy’s search and the two lawyers’ exit from the pension room, she managed to deflate the left rear wheel of her husband’s vehicle, so he would not escape.
She also persuaded one of the receptionists to tell her which room her husband was staying in, then got a key card from one of the room boys.
The couple has been married for less than two years. Eliza reportedly used to work as Liam’s secretary before she passed the Bar exam.