De Lima asked to review homicide rap vs Bulacan exec

The family of the slain former boyfriend of ex-Quezon City Rep. Nanette Castelo-Daza on Friday asked Justice Secretary Leila de Lima to review the case, insisting it should be murder and not merely homicide.

 

In their petition for review, the relatives of Noel Orate Sr. asked that the April 10 resolution affirming a homicide charge against suspect Allan Robes be "modified to the effect that the findings would be a probable cause for murder qualified by treachery, abuse of superior strength, aid of armed men, and aggravated by the use of unlicensed firearm."

 

Orate's family accused the Justice Department of disregarding several key evidence against Robes, a Bulacan board member who posted bail after being linked to the incident inside Daza's home in Quezon City last February 10.

 

"The prosecutor general erred in disregarding the physical evidence which is the highest in the hierarchy of evidence and the affidavits of witnesses showing that there is probable cause to indict respondent-appellee for murder," read the petition.

 

The petition for review was filed before De Lima's office.

 

The petitioner noted that the firearm used to kill Orate was an unlicensed firearm, which should be considered an "aggravating circumstance" based on Section 1 of Republic Act No. 8294 or the law on illegal possession of firearms.

 

In the same petition, the Orate family lawyer, Eduardo Bringas, also said Prosecutor General Claro Arellano, the one who signed the 10-page resolution affirming the homicide charge against Robes, made a mistake by disregarding a death investigation report from the National Bureau of Investigation, which would have "[shown] that there was probable cause to charge the respondent-appellee for murder."

 

The Orate camp insisted "the Prosecutor's Office only needs to find probable cause."

 

The petitioner also claimed they were denied due process.

 

"Unlike the cases cited in support of affirming the information for homicide where the prosecution was given the opportunity to present its evidence in chief before the final verdict of the Supreme Court, the private compainants-appellants were denied of their right to present their evidence in chief," read the petition.

 

Hours before the petition for review was filed, Orate's relatives and members of the Volunteers Against Crime And Corruption gathered outside the DOJ office along Padre Faura in Manila to condemn the DOJ panel's re-affirmation of homicde charges against Robes.

 

Quezon City Assistant City Prosecutor Leonardo Raul Gonzalez earlier recommended homicide charges against Robes, but Orate’s family opposed it, saying murder charges should have been filed instead.

 

But in a 10-page resolution, Assistant State Prosecutor Gino Paolo Santos affirmed Gonzalez’s actions and maintained a homicide complaint, saying there was no eyewitness and there was insufficient evidence to prove treachery, a requirement in a murder charge based on Article 248 of the Revised Penal Code. — Mark Merueñas/RSJ, GMA News