Boy suspect’s counsel says Du30 misinformed
Credit to Author: Tempo Desk| Date: Wed, 27 Mar 2019 08:45:23 +0000
CHRISTINE Lee Silawan
CEBU CITY – The legal counsel of the 17-year-old boy accused of brutally killing 16-year-old Christine Lee Silawan in Lapu-Lapu City believes that President Duterte was misinformed when he ordered the re-arrest of the teenage suspect.
“The President is a lawyer and a former prosecutor, he knows the law. I think he has been misinformed. Maybe what reached him was that there was a proper warrantless arrest but there had already been a preliminary ruling by the Lapu-Lapu City Prosecutor’s Office that it was an invalid arrest,” said Atty. Vincent Isles.
The teenage suspect was released last March 24, the same day that Silawan was laid to rest. Silawan was found dead last March 11 in a vacant lot in Barangay Bankal, Lapu-Lapu. The victim’s face was skinned and some of her internal organs were missing.
Agents of the National Bureau of Investigation in Central Visayas arrested the boy in his home in Barangay Maribago, Lapu-Lapu last March 16. A complaint for murder in relation to Republic Act 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act was filed against the boy before the Lapu-Lapu Prosecutor’s Office.
The boy was released from the custody of the Social Welfare and Development Office of Lapu-Lapu after the prosecutor’s office granted the omnibus motion filed by Isles, who contested that the arrest didn’t fall under the hot pursuit theory.
Isles said the case has to go through a preliminary investigation and an arrest warrant can only be issued if the fiscal’s office finds probable cause to elevate the case to the court.
He said the boy cannot just be arrested because of the President’s order. (Calvin Cordova)