THE Department of Justice (DOJ) on Tuesday dismissed the murder complaint filed against former governors Joel Reyes and Jose Antonio Carrion, of Palawan and Marinduque, respectively, and several others, in connection with the killing of broadcaster Gerry Ortega on January 24.

Reyes immediately welcomed the DOJ decision clearing him of any criminal culpabilities over the killing of Ortega.

“Those who have planned this nefarious deed will have their day of 
reckoning. Those who have plotted to unjustly destroy us, those who
 have perjured themselves and manufactured evidence, and who have tried 
to use the justice system to perpetrate this foulest of deeds, shall 
rue the day when they contrived this evil scheme. We shall expose them 
for who they really are, so that they will never again deceive anyone,
 anymore, at any time,” Reyes said in a statement.

The Ortega family, however, expressed dismay over the DOJ resolution branding it as a “denial of justice.”

“The DOJ decision was a blow beyond low. We lost dad and now we feel
blatantly cheated,” Ortega’s daughter Mika said in a text message.

“The panel said there was lack of evidence but absolved the owner of the gun and the self-confessed middlemen. They saw probable cause only in the cases of those who testified against Reyes. It’s grave injustice,” she said.

Ortega’s family insisted that Reyes masterminded the killing because of Ortega’s anticorruption campaign and environmental activism in Palawan, which allegedly contributed to the loss of the governor in his bid to be elected as a member of the House of Representatives for the second district of Palawan.

In a 21-page resolution issued on Tuesday by a panel of prosecutors, which conducted preliminary investigation on the case, the justice department said the evidence presented against Reyes, Carrion, Palawan Mayor Mario Reyes, former Palawan provincial administrator lawyer Romeo Seratubias and two other suspects Arturo Regalado and Percival Lecias, were insufficient to establish probable cause to warrant indictment.

However, the DOJ found probable cause to warrant the filing of murder charges against the other suspects namely Rodolfo Edrad Jr., Armando Noel, Dennis Aranas and Arwin Arandia.

The four accused were implicated by confessed gunman Marlon Recamata as those who assisted him in perpetrating the crime.

Recamata was arrested several hours after he shot and killed Ortega while the latter was fitting garments inside a store on the National Highway, San Pedro, Puerto Princesa City, Palawan.

Following his arrest, Edrad named the Carrion, Reyes and his younger brother Mario and Regalado as the one who ordered Ortegas’s killing.

Edrad claimed that he was a former “close-in” security aide of Carrion and Reyes, and that he was hired by the two to kill Ortega in exchange of more than P600,000.

He recounted that in the last week of June 2010, Carrion tasked him to kill two mediamen in Palawan and that a budget of P600,000 had been allotted for him to carry out the plan.

Edrad added that Carrion told him that he was still negotiating for an additional P100,000 for his group.

Edrad claimed that he first reported to Reyes on July 4, 2010, in Makati City where they discussed about his task.

It was followed by another meeting in December 2010 at Marriott Hotel, Resort World, Pasay City, where Reyes gave him P100,000 for mobilization of recruits and P50,000 for the purchase of a gun.

Edrad then went back to his hometown in Pagbilao, Quezon, where he recruited Noel, Arandia, Recamata and Aranas to be part of the group that would kill Ortega.

Edrad said Mayor Reyes gave him P500,000 at the latter’s residence in January 2005 allegedly upon the instruction of Governor Reyes.

Reyes, in his counter-affidavit, has denied that Edrad served as his close-in security aide and that he gave the latter money to kill Ortega.

Carrion and Mayor Reyes also denied having conversations with Edrad about the plot to kill Ortega.

Seratubias, on the other hand, said he should not be indicted for the crime since he merely sold the gun that was used in the killing of Ortega to Lecias, an employee of the provincial government in whom he had trust and confidence.

For his part, Regalado denied any involvement in the killing of Ortega saying that his participation was limited to procuring the 0.45 caliber gun used in crime, through Lecias, and to delivering the 0.38 caliber bullets to Arandia, believing that it would be used in a farm.

“The alleged conversations between Governor Reyes and Edrad that purport 
to show that the former masterminded the killing of Doc Gerry; the
 alleged payment to Edrad by Governor Reyes of P15,000 in Marriott Hotel on
  July 4, 2010 and P100,000 in Dasmariñas Village on  January 8, 2011; and
 the alleged payment by respondent Mayor Reyes to Edrad of P500,000 in
 Ayala Alabang on request of governor Reyes rest solely on the statements 
of Edrad in his extrajudicial confession, and no independent evidence 
corroborates all such statements,” said the DOJ panel.

The DOJ explained that the rules of court only allow extrajudicial 
confession of a co-conspirator in the crime when it is supported by
 independent evidence or if it used as corroborative evidence.

The panel said Edrad’s testimony against the six was “uncorroborated.”