Jastiva: Police rushed probe

CEBU, Philippines – The pastor of Seventh-Day Adventist Church Reform Movement charged for allegedly masterminding the killing of his wife had accused the police hastening the investigation against of the case reportedly because of the attention media has given it.

Leonardo Jastiva Sr. made the allegation in the counter-affidavit he filed before the city prosecutor’s office to formally deny the parricide charges against him.

Jastiva said the police allegedly was in a hurry to conclude that he masterminded the killing of his wife, Judith, at the expense of truth.

“It appears from all angles that the police investigators were in a hurry to solve this high profile case because of the media attention given to it at the expense of truth and justice,” Jastiva’s affidavit reads.

He claimed that the police relied so much on circumstantial evidence and did not have “single solid evidence stand to link me to the killing of my wife.”

Jastiva said the police immediately concluded that he was involved in the crime because he refused to cooperate publicly in the investigation.

He explained that he was hesitant to cooperate only because he feared for his life and that of his family, considering that his wife’s supported kidnappers had warned him not to have the case investigated by the police.

“Contrary to the police investigators’ findings that I acted strangely ‘to locate the dead body of my wife, not to reveal to the media, not to record on the police blotter and to immediately bury the victim,’ this was not my own liking but this was what the kidnappers in their text messages warned and I feared for my safety and my children if I went openly against their wishes,” Jastiva’s affidavit further reads.

Despite this, Jastiva said he reportedly promised the police to cooperate secretly in the investigation so as not to compromise the safety of his children.

He likewise denied the statement of witnesses that no kidnapping actually happened because nothing unusual reportedly happened at supposed crime scene evening on February 9.

Jastiva said there was really no commotion because the kidnappers pointed a gun at them to silence them.

Likewise, Jastiva denied the police claim that he refused to turn over the jacket of his wife. In fact, he reportedly told Chief Inspector George Ylanan that the jacket was just placed at the back of his multi-cab. He said he was just waiting for the police to get it but nobody reportedly did.

On the text messages that the kidnappers sent him, which were subsequently traced to his other phone, Jastiva explained that he was the one who forwarded the messages to his other phone.

According to him, the kidnappers sent him the messaged through cell phone number 09058521112, which he received in his Motorola phone with number 09268187329.

From his Motorola phone, he then reportedly forwarded the messages to his Nokia cell phone with the number 09268531297 before eventually forwarding it to Ylanan.

He said the text message from the kidnappers that claimed unfaithfulness on the part of his wife, which reportedly triggered the killing should be taken as proof that his wife was indeed unfaithful to him.

Jastiva said the kidnappers may have used it as a ploy to mislead the investigators.

Jastiva said it is impossible for him to have masterminded the killing of his wife because he is a minister of a religious sect that does not even kill animals for food.

“We in our church are vegetarian and thus we do not even kill animals for eating. With more reason under God and law that we do not kill humans. I have no reason to kill or mastermind the killing of anyone, especially my wife,” Jastiva said.

Attached to Jastiva’s counter-affidavit are certifications coming from different people, including Talisay Mayor Socrates Fernandez, to vouch that he never had any record of violence. — Fred P. Languido/JMO  (THE FREEMAN)