Court junks Castro case vs. 3 tanods

The Office of the Prosecutor dismissed a perjury case filed by assistant city prosecutor Mary Ann Castro against three barangay tanods of Kalubihan, Cebu City for lack of probable cause.

"It is the undersigned stand that the filing of this instant case is premature," stated Prosecutor I Ma. Leonore Norman dela Serna in her two-page decision.

Assistant city prosecutor Mary Ann Castro filed this case against barangay tanods Raul Piencenaves, Alberto Cole and Henry Villafuerte of Kinalubihan.

Castro alleged that the three made sworn statements that were "blatantly false and malicious against her, designed to distort and muddle the real incident that took place at that time." The lady fiscal alleged that the three were only coerced by the Yu brothers to execute affidavits in their favor.

The three barangay tanods executed affidavits to support the charges against Castro for the July 10, 2004 traffic incident which involved Jake Yu and his brother Nanak.

In their joint affidavit, the respondents said what contained in their affidavit were "facts."

Castro, in her affidavit, contended that the respondents "were probably tricked and promised with a certain consideration to execute affidavit," and that their counter-affidavit was "tainted with self-serving conclusions of fact and law which deserve to be outrightly thrown outside the window for lack of logical value."

However, dela Serna said that "Considering that the cases for which the affidavit being questioned was executed is still pending in court and that the complainant has not submitted any other evidence to support her charge of perjury against the respondents other than her bare assertion of falsehood in her affidavit/complaint and reply affidavit" this case is premature as another case related to it is still being heard.

The malicious mischief and grave slander case filed by Castro against the Yu brothers is still pending before the Municipal Trial Court in Cities branch 4.

Thus the case against the respondents was dismissed for "lack of probable cause."