CEBU, Philippines - The counsel of the couple suspected of killing six year-old girl Ellah Joy Pique will ask Police Sr. Supt. Erson Digal to release his clients, Norwegian National Sven Erik Berger, 47, from Oslo, Norway and registered nurse Karen Castro Esdrelon, 25, a resident of Tuburan, Cebu.
Lawyer Salvador Solima said his clients are 100 percent innocent. He said there are documents that will prove that at the time of the incident his clients were in a Norwegian School and at a hotel.
Solima claimed that his clients never went to Moalboal and don’t know where the place is as well as Barili town where the body of Pique was dumped.
Solima said they will not file a writ of habeas corpus, as what he first said to the media, because when the case will be filed by the police officers of Cebu Provincial Police Office, the habeas corpus will become moot and academic.
Solima said he will file case if the police will pursue filing charges against his clients.
“Probably we will file illegal detention and administrative case to the authorities because they arrested my clients in the airport without any order from the court to hold them,” Solima explained.
He said only the court can hold the departure of the passengers and not somebody else.
Meanwhile, Solima hopes that Digal would look into the itinerary of the couple the day when the crime happened.
Positive ID
The positive identification by witnesses is considered as one big factor that strengthens the case against the suspects in killing of the six-year-old girl from barangay Calajoan, Minglanilla.
To protect the witnesses, there will be a recommendation made to put them under the Witness Protection Program.
Lawyer Kit Enriquez, one of the legal counsels of the Pique family, said that if suspects used an alibi, it is a weak form of evidence and it can not overcome the positive identification by the witness.
Enriquez said they will protect the witnesses through the witness protection program while personnel from the Department of Social Welfare and Development will assist them in the course of the trial.
“There will be a video conference aron dili mahadlok ang mga bata dili lang sila ibutang sa atubangan,” he said.
The Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Cebu City and Cebu Province chapters have also offered to extend legal assistance to the family.
Denial
Esdrelon said that there was no way they could have abducted Pique since they were both busy with their engagement.
She said that her fiancé arrived in Cebu at 6:40 p.m. last February 7 and they immediately checked in at the Days Hotel in Barangay Matumbo, Lapu-Lapu City and checked out 8 a.m. the next day.
After that, they went to the mall to meet with her aunt to buy an engagement ring then went to the Philippine National Bank to deposit money then went back to the mall to meet her cousin and get her Professional Regulations Commission ID card to be submitted to the Sigvathsen Norwegian Language school.
Then they had a late lunch at a restaurant along Gorordo Ave., Lahug before they checked in at another hotel about 5 p.m.
On Wednesday about 11 a.m. they checked out and went to the mall again then to a building at the Cebu Business Park then back to the mall to rent a car that would take them to Tuburan town.
Operatives of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), Provincial Intelligence Branch (PIB), and the Regional Intelligence Division (RID) are now checking the claim of the suspects.
Solima added that witnesses could be unreliable since they can be taught what to say and do.
“Hope kalamdagan sila before mo-resort to any action,” he said.
Solved
But Digal has considered Ellah’s case as solved after witnesses firmly stand to testify what really happened when Pique was abducted and killed last February 8.
Pique, 6, was found by a councilman last Wednesday morning in barangay Guibuangan, Barili town. She was naked and wrapped in white blankets together with three big rocks and tied with electric cable.
Autopsy results showed that she was not raped, but had several contusions in her both arms and a lacerated wound in the head causing her death. Police suspect she was used for child pornography.
Police Officer 3 Elmer Abecia, team leader of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Crime Laboratory 7 already got the finger prints of both suspects yesterday.
One witness positively identified Esdrelon as the one who lured Pique and recognized Berger as the driver of the sports utility vehicle as the door was opened wide.
“Na-klaro man nako ang babaye ug ang Amerkano kay gi-ablihan man ang pultahan,” she told reporters.
Provincial Atty. Marino Martinquilla said they will file the case at the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office and let suspects submit their counter affidavits.
Martinquilla added that as part of the Cebu Provincial Anti-Criminality Task Group they will exert efforts not only until the apprehension, but until the filing of charges.
Concern
Three Norwegian freelance journalists went to the Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO) yesterday and covered the arrest of their countryman.
Roar Moltubar, reporter of VG paper and VG live web streaming told The FREEMAN that pointing Berger as the suspect in killing Pique created big news in Norway two days after reports were broadcast and published in local papers.
Moltubar said he was in Malaysia for a vacation when he was called by their office requesting him to cover the incident involving Berger in Cebu City.
“I immediately come here right after I arrived at the airport, I don’t even have rest,” he said.
Harry Wad, a freelance photographer and journalist of Dag Bladet paper said they cared about what happened since many Filipinos are working in Norway.
Wad criticized the local media after he saw video footages of the suspects at the airport and read their names in local and national newspapers.
“They did not know what the problem is and media are coming to them at the airport, rushing and taking pictures,” he said.
He added that putting the name of the suspects in papers created negative impact to their family especially to their children who are innocent.
Atty. Solima said the Norwegian embassy has been monitoring him every now and then asking for updates.
Clear her name
Josie Esdrelon, mother of the suspect, accused the authorities of giving them shame after Karen was arrested together with her fiancé.
“Sobrang pagpakauwaw sa akong anak nga professional gud na,” Josie said in an interview.
She said she wants the authorities to clarify and clear the name of her daughter.
Karen is the second among three siblings. Her older sister is also a registered nurse while her brother is still in college.
Josie said if her daughter was aware being one of the suspects of the crime she might not show up at the airport.
“Kung criminal pa mopakita kaha sa airport? Wa ko malipay sa ilang gibuhat,” she said.
FUND RAISING
A group of professionals, who planned to raise money amounting to P500,000 to help the family of Ellah Joy and other victims of child abuse has a total of P174,000.
Atty. Frank Malilong on a press conference held at the Casino Español yesterday afternoon said that the P174, 000 that they have received as of yesterday came from businessmen, lawyers, and some couples who have read the news and wanted to extend some help.
Malilong said that after he read the news about what happened to Ellah Joy, he started contacting some of his friends and asked them if they could do something about it. So they started to conduct some fund rising for the family of the victim as well as reward money for those who could give information or point out as to who might have killed the girl.
Vice Mayor Joy Augustus Young said that he is happy that lawyers from Cebu City initiated the move to help the family of Pique. He also announced that the Cebu City council raised a total amount of P25,000 as additional reward money.
Atty. Briccio Boholst, Mandaue City Administrator, said that what happened is a lesson for the local government unit to formulate action plan to protect the children. He said that although there are already existing laws, the implementation of those law are lacking.
Another case
In Mandaue City, a seven-year-old girl, accompanied by her mother, visited the Mandaue City Police Office yesterday to report that she too was almost kidnapped by the same woman who was arrested last Saturday evening.
MCPO director Noel Gillamac yesterday said that Elena Cabahug, 40, of San Antonio, barangay Jagobiao, visited his office yesterday to report that her child was also almost kidnapped last January 9 while they were inside a chapel inside the Eversley Childs Sanitarium and Hospital.
They also pointed to Esdrelon as the woman, who tried to befriend and convince the child to go with her.
According to Cabahug she was hearing mass during that time, when the woman at her back began to approach her child which she did not mind because she also noticed that the woman was friendly.
However, a few minutes later, she discovered that the child was no longer by her side and saw the child and the woman outside the church so she gave a chase.
She said that upon seeing her, the woman left the child behind and left the place.
Gillamac said that although they did not have the incident recorded after what happened last January 9, Cabahug said that the came to visit MCPO yesterday to corroborate the statement of other witnesses against Esdrelon.
Gillamac said that the immediately coordinated with Digal. The child was then brought to the CPPO yesterday afternoon and during the police line-up the girl was also able to positively identify Esdrelon as the same woman who also wanted to kidnap her last January 9.
Gillamac said that an attempted kidnapping case will also be filed against Esdrelon and her other cohorts today as they believe that the woman did not do it on her own. — with Mellanie Rosales and Flor Z. Perolina/NLQ (FREEMAN NEWS)