Enzo Pastor dad: Evidence best threshed out in court, not in prelim probe

The father of slain car racing champion Enzo Pastor on Monday said a trial court, and not the Department of Justice, is the best venue to prove the authenticity of the evidence so far presented by both parties in the June 12 killing.

Tomas Pastor had earlier submitted a reply-affidavit to the counter-affidavit filed by self-confessed gunman PO2 Edgar Angel, in which he showed phone logs indicating Angel was in constant communication with Enzo's wife Dalia and businessman Domingo de Guzman III, the alleged mastermind, on the day of the killing. This, he said, showed conspiracy.

De Guzman has contested the authenticity of the phone logs in his counter-affidavit.

In response, Tomas—in a reply-affidavit submitted during the resumption of preliminary investigation at the DOJ on Monday—said elevating his complaint to a trial court was the best way to prove the authenticity not only of the phone logs but also of the other evidence, including a CCTV footage earlier submitted by De Guzman showing he was illegally arrested in Muntinlupa City for the killing.

"These phone logs can be produced and verified in court during the trial proper. We can subpoena these phone logs in court to verify their authenticity," said Tomas.

"The truthfulness of his statements, the application of the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine in the admissibility of evidence gathered by the police against him, the authenticity of the phone logs and text messages between and among the respondents, as well as the other purported CCTV videos in the place where he was arrested in an entrapment operation should be threshed out in a full-blown trial and not during the preliminary investigation stage of this case," he added.

In his reply-affidavit, Tomas also stressed that De Guzman had failed to deny the following accusations against him:

- that he had an illicit affair with Enzo's wife Dalia, who is also a suspect in the killing;
- that he visited Dalia at Enzo's house whenever Enzo was away;
- that he previously met with Alvin Nidua, the one initially hired by De Guzman to kill Enzo but refused the offer;
- that gunman Angel was his friend;
- that he was communicating with Dalia and Angel through calls and text messages on the day of the shooting on June 12;
- that he was carrying an unlicensed firearm on the day he was arrested; and
- that he caught in thw act handing over P50,000 tp Angel as "bonus" for killing Enzo.

In his counter-affidavit, De Guzman included the CCTV footage to show that he did not hand over money to Angel during the entrapment operation.

In his reply-affidavit, Tomas said that while the handing of the money might have already been out of the vantage point of the CCTV, the footage still proved material points in Angel's statement that he met with De Guzman at a "talyer" to get his "bonus."

"Actually, the CCTV video proves the guilt of respondent De Guzman, particularly the fact that he was indeed the mastermind of the murder of my son Enzo," said Tomas.

Enzo's father also reiterated their earlier position that Angel's extra-judicial confession should be given more weight than his eventual recantation. The DOJ had already discarded Angel's recantation and instead ordered the filing of a murder charge against him in court.

"At this point, it is sufficient that the material allegations of my complaint, as well as the extra-judicial confession of respondent Angel, are all supported by other corroborative evidence," Tomas said. —KBK, GMA News