The camp of a rape-murder victim yesterday asked a Quezon City court not to grant one of the two prime suspects to drop the case against him by claiming the arrest was unlawful since it was made four days after the murder incident.

 Insisting that the arrest made by the police was legal, the family of murdered model Julie Ann Rodelas through their counsel Atty. Pete Principe said that accused Fernando Quiambao Jr. was nabbed during a “hot pursuit operation’’ based on a thorough investigation conducted by the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) operatives on the November 6 murder case.

 Quiambao asked the court to quash the criminal indictment against him, claiming he and his girlfriend Althea Altamirano were illegally arrested in Pampanga on Nov. 10.

 He claimed that he was arrested without a warrant four days after Rodelas’ death which was supposedly illegal but Principe stressed that Quiambao’s arrest was valid and met the Revised Rules of Court provision on hot pursuit operations.

“There is no showing that the investigation was tainted with malice and that the police officers acted in bad faith,” Principe said in a comment submitted to Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 223 Judge Caridad Walse-Lutero.

“Very clearly, the motion is baseless,” Principe said in arguing that the accused’s bid be denied for utter lack of merit.

Quaimbao, Altamirano and Jaymar Waradji are accused of orchestrating the abduction and murder of Rodelas, 20, a part-time model and ABS-CBN talent whose bullet riddled body was dumped in Cubao on Nov. 6.

The accused are now detained at the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit (CIDU).

Quiambao and Altamirano were arrested in Apalit, Pampanga after the police established that it was Quiambao’s Misubishi Montero that was used in Rodelas’ abduction and murder on November 6.
Police investigators said that Altamirano’s grudge against Rodelas, her colleague, who allegedly spread rumors about her having two children was the motive for the murder.