ILOILO – Members of the Lopez family charged for the death of businesswoman Claire Diergos asked the prosecutor handling the preliminary investigation to inhibit. A motion to inhibit was filed last week and addressed to Prosecutor I (Associate Provincial Prosecutor) Joviel Edama of the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office.
“We have nothing against the investigating prosecutor,” clarified Atty. Dwight Trasadas, legal counsel of the Lopezes. “It is just that we discovered that when he was a practicing lawyer, he represented a relative who accused Peter Paul Lopez for grave coercion when (Lopez) was still the mayor of San Dionisio, Iloilo” sometime in 2018.
The prosecutor must inhibit from the case “para indi magduda ang pihak nga party or to avoid malice,” Trasadas told Panay News.
Aside from Peter Paul Lopez, other family members named as respondents in the murder case filed by the special investigation team of the Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO) were his wife Saliha and sons Carlos Paul, Felix Paul and Christian Paul.
Trasadas said Edama has yet to make known his response to the motion.
He also said his clients will submit their counter-affidavits this week not later than Feb. 10. They all denied having anything to do with the crime.
“We have already subscribed the judicial affidavits and supporting documents,” said Trasadas.
Aside from the Lopezes, Trasadas is also representing another respondent, Raffy Sorioso who formerly worked as aide to former mayor Peter Paul Lopez.
The SIT filed the complaint on Jan. 5, 2021.
Aside from the Lopezes and Sorioso, the other respondents were Gardo Ibrahim, a former aide of Lopez, and Rodilyn Sumbong, the newly-hired house help of Diergos.
There were two other respondents but the police have not named them.
Diergos was found dead inside her sport utility vehicle on Oct. 26, 2021 in Barangay Inangayan, Santa Barbara, Iloilo.
The SIT, however, determined that she was actually killed in her house at Deca Homes subdivision in the adjacent town of Pavia in the wee hours of Oct. 25, 2021.
It took the SIT more than two months to file the complaint, citing the lack of credible witnesses.
An autopsy showed Diergos had multiple stab wounds: two on the neck, five on the left arms and two on the right arm. Her neck was slashed.
On Oct. 29, 2021 Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO) conducted a luminol acid test in Diergo’s house at Deca Homes Subdivision, Barangay Balabag, Pavia. Blood traces were spotted on the floor, wall, bed, blanket of Diergo’s three-year-old daughter, table, wall of the comfort room, Diergos’ dressing room, and the cover of the washing machine.
A closed-circuit television footage showed Diergos’ Montero Sport leaving Deca Homes at 4:20 a.m. on Oct. 25.
One of the first persons the police invited for questioning was Diergos’ newly-hired house help Sumbong of New Lucena, Iloilo.
She last saw Diergos alive late night of Oct. 24 (a Sunday), she told the police, and hadn’t seen her since waking up Monday morning after.
Sumbong was hired just that Sunday afternoon. She said Diergos fetched her at the transport terminal in Barangay Tagbak, Jaro, Iloilo City and they had dinner in Oton town before going home to Deca Homes around 8 p.m.
If Sumbong were to be believed, she went to sleep soundly that Sunday night after Diergos told her to just leave the gate unlocked.
She denied having anything to do with the killing./PN
