Boy suspect back in custody of Lapu-Lapu social workers
Credit to Author: Tempo Desk| Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2019 06:03:39 +0000
CHRISTINE Lee Silawan
CEBU CITY – The 17-year-old suspect in the gruesome killing of his former girlfriend Christine Lee Silawan is back in the custody of social workers in Lapu-Lapu City.
The teenage suspect was picked up from a safe house by his lawyer Vincent Isles and Lapu-Lapu prosecutor Ruso Zaragoza and was brought to a home care facility of the city’s social welfare and development office around 10 a.m. yesterday.
“It was the prosecutor who convinced the boy’s mother to return her son to the custody of social workers for security reasons,” said Isles.
The return of the suspect to the home care facility came after President Duterte ordered the re-arrest of the boy.
Zaragoza admitted that the President called him up last Tuesday to inquire why the boy was released.
Zaragoza said he explained to the President why the boy was released. The city prosecutor then went to the suspect’s house in Barangay Maribago, Lapu-Lapu last Wednesday where he convinced the boy’s mother to turn over her son to social workers for security purposes.
The mother agreed but also appealed to the President to respect whatever the outcome of the investigation.
Isles said there was nothing wrong when the President called up the prosecutor.
“As head of the Executive department and the prosecution is part and parcel of the path of the Executive, the President could very well order his prosecutors to attend to certain cases and deal with how some cases are being done,” Isles said.
Isles, however, believes that 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 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 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. (Calvin D. Cordova)