Vice President Noli de Castro and his wife Arlene once again failed to appear during yesterday’s second preliminary investigation on the bigamy and other criminal cases filed against them before the Quezon City prosecutor’s office.
Their lawyers, Armando Marcelo, Joselito Paras and Maricris Pahate, however, submitted counter affidavits disputing the allegations hurled against the couple.
“There is no bigamy case, the Vice President and Mrs. De Castro stand by their vows,” Marcelo told reporters after the hearing.
Marcelo, quoting a prepared statement distributed to newsmen, said Arlene admitted she married Juanito Olor without the consent of her parents in a ceremony at the Manila City Hall on Nov. 17, 1971.
“Mrs. De Castro and Olor, who are both Muslims, never cohabited as husband and wife despite marriage,” Marcelo said.
He also admitted that Arlene gave birth to two sons but her husband allegedly forcibly took them and disappeared.
Arlene, according to her lawyer, said her failure to find their children after 15 years opens up the presumption that Olor was already dead when she married De Castro in July 1991.
Under applicable Muslim laws, a person’s continued absence for at least seven years, it being unknown whether he still lives, rendered him presumably dead without any need of court declaration.
But lawyer Abdul Basar, who represents the complainants, said the argument presented by Arlene is a matter of defense and that her former husband is very much alive.
Basar also told reporters that the Shariah law, which covers Muslims, could not be invoked because they married in civil rites and that automatically puts them under the jurisdiction of the Civil Code.
The Vice President countered that the failure of the complainants to establish their accusation against his wife automatically defeats the charges against him.
De Castro also declared that he had no prior knowledge of his wife’s previous marriage at the time they married in 1991.
“Mrs. De Castro corroborated this statement by declaring that she opted not to inform Noli of her dissolved marriage,” Marcelo said.
The case against the De Castros stemmed from the charges filed by Arlene’s children from Onor – Jhoveneel Sinsuat Onor and his brother, Arjurie.
Aside from bigamy, De Castro is also accused of falsifying official documents when he claimed to be single in their marriage application as shown by the marriage certificate issued by the National Statistics Office.
De Castro is also accused of perjury after he claimed that he is a Muslim when in fact he is a devout catholic. He is a regular fixture at the yearly procession of the Feast of the Black Nazarene in Quiapo, Manila.
Cases of threats and obstruction of justice were also filed against the couple before the city prosecutor’s office.
Assistant City Prosecutor Fabinda Santos has given the complainants 10 days to file their comment on the counter-affidavit submitted by the Vice President and his wife.