DOJ chief orders filing of new extradition case vs Strunk

Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez has ordered prosecutors handling the Nida Blanca murder case to prepare the filing of a new extradition case against primary suspect Rod Lawrence Strunk.

Gonzalez gave the order following the surfacing of new witnesses against the slain actress’ American husband.

He ordered state prosecutors Olivia Non and Melvin Abad to consolidate all evidence against Strunk, including the affidavits of the new witnesses.

"I have already ordered state counsels to prepare the next extradition case," Gonzalez said.

Blanca, Dorothy Jones in real life, was stabbed dead inside her parked car on the sixth floor of the Atlanta Centre in Greenhills, San Juan, on Nov. 6, 2001.

The building housed the offices of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB).

Strunk and Philip Medel, whom he allegedly hired to kill Blanca, have been charged with murder before the Pasig Regional Trial Court.

The new set of evidence to be used in the filing of new extradition case with the US Department of Justice include the affidavits of Rannie Francisco, Andrada Dalandas and Fedelyn Canonio.

Their statements were used as basis by the DOJ in indicting three more persons, including a retired general.

In a resolution issued last Dec. 5 , the prosecution panel charged businessman Mike Martinez as principal accused, Blanca’s long time personal aide Elena de la Paz as an accomplice, and retired Gen. Galileo Kintanar as an accessory to the crime.

In her affidavit, star witness Dalandas claimed she saw Martinez with Strunk and Medel, who were carrying Blanca’s body at the parking area of the Atlanta Centre.

Canonio had attested that the witness was indeed at the Atlanta Centre at that time while Francisco identified De la Paz as one of three people last seen with Blanca when she left the MTRCB offices hours before her body was found.

De la Paz and Kintanar have filed separate motions seeking the reversal of the DOJ resolution.

Kaye Torres, daughter of the slain actress, filed through her lawyer Harriet Demetriou a motion seeking to charge De la Paz and Kintanar as principal accused in the five-year-old murder case.