Court junks habeas corpus petition filed by suspected killer's wife

CEBU, Philippines - The court denied the petition for habeas corpus filed by the wife of the accused in the killing of Department of Public Works and Highways engineer Ciriaco Salazar last August 5.

Nanette Jane Garcia has asked the court to order the release of  her husband, Rene Garcia, from the custody of Supt. Pablo Labra of the Cebu City Police Office, claiming the arrest made on August 9 was without authority.

“The function of the special proceeding of habeas corpus is to inquire into the legality of one’s detention. Fundamentally, in order to justify the grant of the writ of habeas corpus, the restraint of liberty must be in the nature of an illegal and involuntarily deprivation of freedom of action,” Regional Trial Court Branch 12 Judge Estela Alma Singco said in her order denying Nanette’s petition.

The judge said Nanette failed to present evidences in court to prove her claim during the hearing of the petition on August 17.

“The petitioner failed to establish that Rene’s detention was illegal,” Singco said. “It was rather inconsistent of Rene to assail the legality of his detention after waiving his right against arbitrary detention pending for his preliminary investigation.”

Meanwhile, during the hearing of the petition, Labra claimed that the arrest and detention of Rene was legal and his detention was lawful as he executed a waiver against arbitrary detention pending the conduct of a regular preliminary investigation, not considering the fact that the warrantless arrest was lawful.

But Nanette, through her counsel Atty. Giovanni Luna, assailed the validity of the waiver, contending that her husband was not properly apprised of his constitutional rights when the waiver was executed.

To ascertain the claim of Nanette, the parties agreed to set the petition for further hearing on August 20, and 27 but on August 19, Nanette through her counsel, filed an ex-parte very urgent motion to cancel hearing, and asked the petition be submitted for resolution.

According to Luna, they filed the motion to cancel bail for habeas corpus after they learned that the case has just been submitted for resolution in view of the filing information against Garcia in court.

“In view of such development it is considered the opinion of the petitioner and counsel that the instant petition for habeas corpus has just been rendered moot and academic,” Luna’s motion reads.

The habeas corpus was filed after the murder complaint was filed against Garcia, the alleged gunman and Norman Agbay, the driver of the getaway vehicle, before the City Prosecutor’s Office.

Reports had it that the real target of Garcia was not the engineer but his wife, Dolores, former superior of the accused also at the DPWH, for allegedly firing the latter from his job.

Garcia fired at Ciriaco while the victim was driving his car in Sitio Tigbao, Barangay Talamban, Cebu City thinking it was Dolores. (FREEMAN)