Griffiths, Santos eye raps vs. prosecution witnesses

CEBU, Philippines - The British national and his Filipina girlfriend who were charged for the kidnapping and murder of a six-year-old girl in Minglanilla are threatening to file a “multi-million dollar damage suit” against the witnesses.

Lawyer Rameses Villagonzalo said his clients, Bella Ruby Santos and Ian Charles Griffiths, are taking another legal remedy to protect themselves from the accusation.

“Just face the charges anyway that’s normal, if you accused someone they have the right to file charges in return. Just face it. Good luck and get ready because you will receive a love letter,” Villagonzalo said.

Villagonzalo said he just hope that the police handling the witnesses against his clients will not leave them like what had happened in the case of Karen Esdrelon and Sven Erik Berger who were first accused of kidnapping and killing Ellah Joy Pique.

“Hopefully that cannot be happened to the witnesses like Bansuan, the eye witnesses and the children and their parents who assisted them,” Villagonzalo said.

Meanwhile, Villagonzalo said Santos is asking for more time before she will surrender.

“Miss Santos is asking for enough time because she will not allow why it happened to her when in fact she did not even touch the victim,” he said.

Villagonzalo said he is also hoping that Santos will submit herself to the court soon so that the trial of the case can be started.

According to Villagonzalo, he already assured Santos that they can win the case.

“It is easy to call her to surrender but what if we will switch to her personality. It’s not easy, we know and we can understand her side,” Villagonzalo said.

Villagonzalo said the Philippine government will not be able to bring in Griffiths from the United Kingdom because there is no extradition treaty between the two countries.

Besides, Villagonzalo claimed, there were already requests from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group to the UK police to bring Griffiths in the Philippines but the requests were allegedly denied twice because of the “weak case”.

“The state and CIDG furnished the copies of all records of the kidnapping with homicide to the UK police and the documents were evaluated by the criminal investigator however their request was denied by them because of shallow case,” Villagonzalo said.

But Cebu Provincial Police Office director Patrocinio Comendador promised to bring Griffiths back to the Philippines.

Griffiths, who was previously detained in the UK in connection with the case in Cebu, was already released by the UK police last June 28 after he has posted bail.

His release makes the police’s task even more difficult. —(FREEMAN)