DOJ orders withdrawal of cases v. Boniel, 2 others

CEBU, Philippines — The Department of Justice has ordered the Lapu-Lapu City Prosecutors Office to withdraw the cases of parricide and murder filed before the court against Bohol Provincial Board Member Niño Rey Boniel and two others.

Undersecretary Reynante Orceo ruled that the Office of the City Prosecutor of Lapu-Lapu City has no jurisdiction over the crime allegedly committed by Boniel, Willy Hoylar and Restituto Magoncia, Jr.

Boniel, Hoylar, and Magoncia, were accused of killing Bien Unido Mayor Gisela Boniel on June 7, 2017.

Gisela was allegedly shot on her head and wrapped in a fish net embedded with rocks which served as sinker before she was thrown into the seawaters between Caubian Island and Olango Island in Lapu-Lapu City.

This prompted the police to file the parricide and murder complaints against Boniel and the two accused before the Lapu-Lapu City Prosecutors Office which eventually led to the filing of cases before the court.

Orceo, however, granted the petition for review filed by Boniel, Hoylar, and Magoncia after their motion for reconsideration was denied.

"Wherefore, in view of the foregoing, the instant petition for review is granted and the assailed resolution dated 28 June 2017 of the Office of the City Prosecutor of Lapu–Lapu City is hereby reversed and set aside," reads the resolution.

For his part, the complainant of the cases and former Regional Intelligence Division (RID) chief, now Regional Logistics Division chief Senior Superintendent Jonathan Cabal expressed his dismay on the result.

He stood firm though that the evidence he presented was strong to prosecute the complainants.

“This chicanery by those who issued the resolution cannot simply overcome the overwhelming evidence we presented before the prosecutors of Lapu-Lapu,” Cabal said.

He said the latest development has definitely saddened the family of the slain Bohol mayor.

A motion for reconsideration will be filed before the Department of Justice, and if the outcome would be the same, they will appeal to the Office of the President.

“All is not lost as we still have remedies to pursue like filing an MR before the DOJ and if adverse, appeal to the Office of the President. We firmly believe that the DOJ will reverse itself in this seemingly malodorous resolution,” Cabal said.

He added that as a law enforcer who is privy to the case as he was the main complainant, he believes that the Secretary of Justice was blindsided on the case as it was the undersecretary who signed the resolution.

“I believe that the Secretary of Justice was blindsided on this. It was an undersecretary who signed the resolution, not the SOJ. As with all other infamous resolutions lately hounding the DOJ, they can't afford not to rectify their palpable mistake on this one,” Cabal said. (FREEMAN)