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[av_heading heading=’Stop going after solon for killings – lawyer’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY MAE SINGUAY
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Friday, March 10, 2017
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BACOLOD City – A lawyer for Rep. Melecio Yap Jr. (1st District, Negros Occidental) urged the families of the victims of alleged extrajudicial killings in Escalante City to stop going after the congressman.
Yap is not the “right person” to hold accountable for the deaths in Escalante when he was mayor from 2007 to 2011, Atty. Ariel Malunes told a news conference at Grand Regal Hotel on Thursday.
Murder and frustrated murder charges were filed against Yap in connection with the deaths of some 28 Escalante locals who were known supporters of his 2007 mayoral race rival Santiago Barcelona.
But in a 30-page decision signed on Feb. 17, Judge Danilo Amisola of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 57 (San Carlos City) dismissed the charges filed in his sala.
“The court finds that the evidence as evaluated did not meet the standard of probable cause to warrant the issuance of warrants of arrests against the accused, and the act of omission complained of does not constitute the offense charged,” part of the decision read.
A relative of one of the victims, Mary Oasis Damalerio, claimed the dismissal was “done in deliberate haste, without notifying us, our lawyer, and the prosecution about each and every proceeding of the case.”
Speaking on behalf of the victims’ families, Damalerio said they “harbor deepest doubt on the impartiality and competence” of Amisola.
“We could not help but assume that he (Amisola) is in close contact with Yap and his lawyers,” said Damalerio. “While we, the victim’s families and our lawyers, simply wait for the mailing of the orders of the judge.”
Malunes stressed it was impossible that the victims’ families were not notified.
In a judicial process, “everyone has to be notified, everyone was given enough time and opportunity, and the court has given the time table,” he told the press. “At any rate, the court has to decide. Whether it’s in favor of your case or not, the court has to put an end to the issue.”
Malunes also defended Amisola, who he knows to be “very fair” and not tainted with controversy.
In seeking justice, the families must go after the “right person,” not the “innocent” one, the lawyer said. “Somebody has to face the consequences and, definitely, it is not going to be my client (Yap).”
Malunes also said he is confident the fourth murder charge against the congressman — still pending with RTC Branch 59 (San Carlos City) under Judge Katherine Go — will be dismissed for lack of evidence.
On Dec. 8 last year Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales found probable cause to file murder and frustrated murder charges against Yap and 15 vigilantes with alleged ties with the New People’s Army over the killings./PN
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