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By James Konstantin Galvez, Researcher
A Makati City court has ordered
the reinvestigation into the case against former Batangas governor
Antonio Leviste, who has been charged with homicide for the killing
of his long-time business associate Rafael de las Alas.
Leviste was scheduled to be
arraigned Wednesday but Judge Elmo Alameda of the Makati Regional
Trial Court Branch 150 ordered the case reinvestigated instead on
the request of the victim’s family.
“I would like to express my
deepest condolence to the family and I wish that they could build
from the ruins of this unfortunate incident,” said a weary-looking
Leviste moments after emerging from courtroom.
Leviste had tried to approach de
Las Alas’ wife but members of the Volunteers Against Crime and
Corruption [VACC] and relatives hustled her out of the courtroom
before he could.
Alameda said the complainant must
have the “second chance, once and for all, to take a second look
at the evidence.”
Leviste’s lawyers said the
postponement of the arraignment was against court rules and violates
the constitutional right of their client to be informed of the
charge he faces.
Alameda also ordered the defense
panel to comment within 10 days on the motion of the prosecution to
include Leviste in the hold departure order of the Bureau of
Immigration.
Leviste’s chief counsel, Manuel
Singson, said the reinvestigation was without basis.
“The reinvestigation is nothing
but a ploy to upgrade the charges to murder. Would [Senior State]
Prosecutor [Emmanuel] Velasco go against the wishes of his boss?”
said Singson, referring to Justice Secretary Raul M. Gonzalez.
Gonzalez had said on television
he preferred that the charge by upgraded to murder.
Velasco replied that while
Gonzalez may be his superior, he “is not my conscience and I have
a mind of my own.”
He said it is Chief State
Prosecutor Jovencito Zuño, not Gonzalez, who will sign the findings
of the reinvestigation.
The National Bureau of
Investigation’s deputy director for regional operations, Reynaldo
Esmeralda, said the reinvestigation would focus on Leviste’s claim
that he shot de las Alas in self-defense.
The family of de las Alas had
questioned the haste with which police investigators ruled his death
as a homicide.
The family said the medico legal
reports showed evidence of treachery since de las Alas was shot five
times.
“We would need to go over the
existing evidence in order to be able to fill in whatever gaps might
be missing,” Esmeralda said.
For a start, the NBI probers will
inspect the crime scene, the office of Leviste in Makati, on January
31.
“We hope that the governor
would be willing to come with us and help us reconstruct the
scene,” Esmeralda said.
The investigators will also look
at photographs of the gun and its position in the room to determine
if de las Alas had drawn his weapon, if he was aiming his gun at
anyone and if he had already drawn it when he was shot.
“We are looking into all the
possible scenarios,” Esmeralda said. “Even the scenario
that there might have been a third party in the room.”
The NBI is compiling a list of
the people who were in the office—not necessarily the room—where
the shooting happened.
“Leviste has already admitted
to killing the victim,” Esmeralda said. “What we need is to
check the allegations of self defense, determine if his life
was really in eminent danger.”
The ex-governor is out on bail.
--With Katrice R. Jalbuena
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