Pastor's counsel welcomes move of cops to re-file case

CEBU, Philippines - One of the defense lawyers of Pastor Leonardo Jastiva Sr., whom the police tagged in the killing his wife, welcomes the move of the police to re-file the parricide case against his client should they find new evidence against him.

Lawyer Fritz Quiñanola urged the police to continue with their investigation into the case and expand it by not focusing only on Jastiva.

“They can only re-file it if they have newly found evidence,” Quinañola said.

According to him, based on the evidence that the police have earlier presented, he believes that Jastiva is innocent. He explained that the police based their case solely on the text messages from Jastiva’s cell phones.

Quiñanola said Jastiva have two cellular phones from which the police claimed the messages of the supposed kidnappers came. He said there were actually four cell phones: one from the kidnappers, the other one from the police and two from Jastiva.

According to Quiñanola, the police believe that Jastiva texted his own cell phone when in truth there was really a text message from the kidnappers.

Asked if they are filing a case for malicious prosecution against the police for insisting that Jastiva was responsible for his wife’s killing, Quiñanola said they are not entertaining that idea.

“Mura man gud og katingalahan pod ang behavior ni Jastiva,” Quiñanola said.

He however explained that if Jastiva did not at first cooperate with the police, it was because of the kidnappers’ threat.

The Cebu City Prosecutor’s Office had dismissed the criminal complaint against Jastiva for lack of probable cause. But the police said they would re-file the case. — Fred P. Languido/LPM   (THE FREEMAN)