THE principal suspects in the killing of motor-racing champion Ferdinand “Enzo” Pastor asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Friday to drop the murder and parricide charges filed against them.
Businessman Domingo “Sandy” de Guzman asked the DOJ to dismiss the murder complaint against him for lack of basis.
Likewise, Pastor’s wife, Dalia, who is facing parricide for her alleged involvement in the killing of her husband, also sought the dismissal of the case on the ground that it was not validly filed by police investigators and for lack of evidence that would link her to the crime.
Dalia did not appear before the DOJ to submit a counteraffidavit but her lawyer Ruy Alberto Rondain submitted a memorandum seeking the dismissal of the complaint for lack of merit.
Dalia’s camp noted that Police Officer 2 Edgar Angel, who earlier implicated de Guzman and Dalia to the crime, had rectracted his statements, saying that he was tortured and coerced by police investigators into signing them.
“In this case, Dalia was not even at the crime scene. All complainants have by way of ‘evidence,’ is that she allegedly called her husband twice on the night he was murdered. This was woefully inadequate,” Rondain said.
“Absent any act or circumstances from which may logically be inferred the existence of a common design among the respondents to commit a crime, the theory of conspiracy remains a speculation, not a fact,” Rondain added.
Likewise, Dalia’s lawyer said any evidence seized from the cellular telephone of de Guzman cannot be used to prove their alleged intimate relationship, because evidence would show that de Guzman was
illegally arrested.
De Guzman, who appeared before Assistant State Prosecutor Susan Villanueva to file his counteraffidavit, claimed that with the recantation of Angel, the complaint against him should be dismissed.
De Guzman, assisted by his counsel Enrique de la Cruz, claimed that the police had framed him.
“He [Angel] didn’t have the chance to meet me because what happened was when I was in the car, when I closed the car, one of the officers approached me and asked, ‘Are you Sandy de Guzman?’ I said, ‘yes’. Then he [the policeman] pulled me out of the car and handcuffed me. So, how can I give the money to PO2 Angel if I was handcuffed,” the businessman told reporters in an
ambush interview.
In his counteraffidavit, de Guzman insisted that the police authorities have failed to present evidence to warrant the finding of probable cause against him.
He noted the police relied solely to the extrajudicial confession of Angel, which the policeman later on retracted, in filing the murder complaint.
Angel earlier claimed in his August 2014 extrajudicial confession that he was hired by de Guzman to kill Pastor in exchange for P100,000.
But in his counteraffidavit submitted to the DOJ on September 8, Angel disowned his confession, saying it was just a “script” written by the police.
De Guzman pointed out that Angel’s retraction should be considered and upheld given the “special circumstances” in the case, adding that the legality and validity of his original and initial extrajudicial confession were doubtful.
On the allegation that he was arrested by the Quezon City Police District after handing a reward money to Angel for killing Pastor, de Guzman said that closed circuit television (CCTV) footage of the entrapment operation would debunk the story of the police.
De Guzman submitted copies of CCTV footage from Unique Autowerkes Shop, Seaoil Philippines Inc. Gasoline Station and of the Santo Niño Village Homeowners’ Association as proof to his claim that he was unarmed, and did not hand over the supposed P20,000 bonus for Angel.
Pastor was shot dead by motorcycle-riding men in Quezon City on June 12. At the time, Pastor was driving a truck and had stopped at the traffic light at the corner of Visayas Avenue and Congressional Extension Avenue in Quezon City.
Pastor was transporting a racecar to Pampanga when he was shot.