Warrantless Arrest Illegal, Court releases Pastor from jail

CEBU, Philippines - The court has declared yesterday as illegal the warrantless arrest of Pastor Leonardo Jastiva Sr., who was accused of killing his wife, and ordered the police to release him from jail immediately.

But Cebu City Police Office director Sr. Supt. Patrocinio Comendador told The FREEMAN that the granting of the petition for habeas may have caused by the inability of the court to appreciate the merit of the charge.

Regional Trial Court Branch 58 Judge Gabriel Ingles granted the petition for writ of habeas corpus filed by Jastiva’s daughter, Gemalou Pitogo, against CCPO Homicide Section chief Mario Monilar questioning the legality of her father’s arrest.

In a four-page order, Ingles declared that the arrest of Jastiva has no “legal basis” as the police did not comply with the requirements under the Rules of Court.

Ingles dismissed Monilar’s claim of “hot pursuit” based on personal knowledge of facts and circumstances as basis of the arrest.

“It (the court) finds that the warrantless arrest is not proper, thus, the present detention of Leonardo B. Jastiva has no legal basis,” Ingles ruled.

Despite the ruling, Ingles said the police can still pursue the parricide case against Jastiva through a regular preliminary investigation.

Ingles, who heard the petition yesterday morning, sustained the arguments of lawyers defending Jastiva, a pastor of the International Missionaries Society of the Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement, that his arrest was illegal.

Comendador said they have other options to pursue to support the legality of Jastiva’s arrest and one of these is the filing of a petition for certiorari.

Comendador said they would be consulting their lawyers on the case, but for now, they would have to follow the court’s order to release Jastiva.

Jastiva was released from detention around 3:15 p.m. yesterday.

Lawyers Luzmindo Besario, Agueda Monteclar and Fritz Quiñanola argued before the court that the arrest was not covered by the exemptions provided for under Section 5(b) Rule 113 of the 1985 Rules on Criminal Procedures.

Under the Rules, for a warrantless arrest to be valid, the three elements must be satisfied; a) that an offense has in fact been committed; b) that it has just been committed; and c) personal knowledge of facts indicating that the person to be arrested has committed it.

According to the defense lawyers, the police “miserably” failed to prove that they have personal knowledge that it was Jastiva who committed the crime.

They presented the autopsy report of the PNP crime laboratory on a woman’s body found in barangay Tabunan, Cebu City last February 18.

The body was identified by Jastiva as that of his wife Judith, whom he reported to have been kidnapped by three armed men on February 9 in barangay Labangon.

Based on the autopsy report, the victim may have been killed four to six days ago prior to the discovery of the body.

Police placed Jastiva under arrest on February 19 after finding “probable cause” based on physical and circumstantial evidence that he was responsible for his wife’s murder.

Ingles ruled that the police failed to justify the element of “immediacy” when they arrested the suspect.

He cited several opinions of the country’s legal luminaries and distinguished justices who defined the phrase “just been committed.”

Ingles quoted Justice Isagani Cruz who said that the requirement of immediacy is obvious from the word “just.” The dictionary also defined it as a “very short time ago.”

“The arrest must be made almost immediately or soon after these acts, not at any time after the suspicion of the arresting officer begins, no matter how long ago the offense was committed,” Ingles cited Cruz’s opinion.

He likewise cited former Chief Justice Claudio Teehankee’s observation that the phrase “just been committed” connotes immediacy.

Ingles said Jastiva was arrested February 19 when the alleged crime of parricide was committed either on February 12 or 14 based on the autopsy report.

“Such gap fails to comply with the required immediacy to justify warrantless arrest as a hot-pursuit arrest,” Ingles ruled.

He said that even if the police had probable cause to believe that Jastiva committed parricide, they still failed to satisfy the requisite.

Ingles, however, emphasized that the court was not saying that the police do not have enough evidence to support the filing of the case in court against Jastiva.

In fact, the court said the police can still pursue the parricide case against Jastiva through a regular preliminary investigation.

A complaint for parricide was already filed before the city prosecutor’s office against Jastiva. Assistant city prosecutor Liceria Rabilla deferred her action on the complaint because of the petition for habeas corpus.

But Rabillas said she would resume the investigation into the complaint next week through a regular preliminary investigation in which the suspect will be required to submit his counter-affidavit.

The police tagged Jastiva in the killing of his wife because of his alleged uncooperative behavior.

The police reportedly found text messages in his cell phone suggesting that the alleged kidnapping was just a scenario he created to cover up the killing.

The text messages that were allegedly coming from his wife’s supposed kidnappers were reportedly found out to be coming from Jastiva’s own cell phone. — With a report from Edwin Ian Melecio/LPM (THE FREEMAN)