Comendador: We are serious on Jastiva case

CEBU, Philippines - Reacting to the Cebu City Council’s statement that the manner in which the police are conducting the investigation of Pastor Leonardo Jastiva is allegedly upsetting, city police director Patrocinio Comendador said that they had been very serious about the case.

Councilor Edgardo Labella earlier said that the Cebu City Police Office’s investigation of Jastiva, who is accused of killing his wife, upsets the council as it may affect the city’s peace and order situation.

In his resolution, Labella expressed grave concern over the manner in which CCPO has conducted its investigation into the kidnapping of Judith, particularly on the police’s concentration on Jastiva as the sole suspect.

Jastiva is a pastor of the International Missionary Society of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church Reform Movement.

Comendador said though they are focusing on Jastiva as the main suspect, they are not discounting the possibility that there are other suspects in the case.

It is possible that there are persons who are behind the murder of Judith last January.

The city police director said that once they tagged a person as the suspect, they see to it that his or her involvement in the incident is being evaluated.

The CCPO believes that the killing of Judith was not just committed by one person, Comendador said.

But he clarified that there are pieces of evidence they are following up but the most vital is the one from the National Telecommunications Commission on the transcription of the text messages of Jastiva’s two cellular phones.

In his resolution, Labella said Jastiva, who reported the abduction of his wife, was arrested by the police without warrant on the basis of “flimsy” circumstantial evidence through the tracing of text messages sent by kidnappers to cellular phones of Jastiva.

The pastor explained that the text messages from the kidnappers were received on his Motorola cell phone and he forwarded them to his Nokia cell phone before forwarding these to the police.

Jastiva was ordered released by the Regional Trial Court, which ruled that his arrest was improper. The court said the police failed to satisfy legal requirements for a warrantless arrest.

The Cebu City Prosecutor’s Office also dismissed the complaint against Jastiva for insufficiency of evidence.

The CCPO, according to Comendador, will re-file the case after they were not able to file a motion for reconsideration before the city prosecutor’s office last Wednesday. – Niña G. Sumacot/LPM (THE FREEMAN)