Brother, 5 others acquitted in Ramgen Revilla slay

A Parañaque City court has acquitted Ramon Joseph Bautista and five others in the 2011 murder of actor Ramgen Revilla.

The Parañaque Regional Trial Court Branch 274 found Bautista, Michael Jay Nartea, Roy Francis Tolisora, Glaiza Visda, Jay Norwin dela Cruz, and Ryan Pastera not guilty of murder and of frustrated murder "for lack of sufficient evidence."

The court ordered them released from detention unless they are  being held for another lawful cause.

Meanwhile, the court ordered the issuance of an alias warrant of arrest against Ma. Ramona Belen Bautista, who remains at large.

The cases against Ramona will be archived and revived when she is arrested, the court said in a ruling by Acting Presiding Judge Betlee-Ian Barraquias.

Ramgen was killed and his girlfriend Janelle Manahan wounded by the assailants in Parañaque on Oct. 28, 2011.

The court said police investigations showed that Ramon Joseph and Ramona conspired with the other accused to plot the killing of their brother.

Their father, former senator Ramon Revilla Sr., vouched for his children's innocence.

Prosecutors filed the charges in court on Nov. 3, 2011.

In its 144-page ruling, portions of which were seen Friday, the court said it cannot rule that there was conspiracy between Ramon Joseph and the unknown assailant or assailants without evidentiary basis.

"The Court cannot make suppositions based on subjective considerations, because proof of conspiracy requires a positive, clear, convincing and substantial evidence," it said.

The court also ruled that none of the evidence police gathered from the crime scene is "traceable" to any of the accused in the case.

"There is no physical or objective evidence that place any one of the accused in the very scene of the crime," the court held. —NB, GMA News