Will parties take plea bargain? Arraignment of son, who killed ma today

CEBU, Philippines -  City Prosecutor Nicolas Sellon recommended a sentence of 10 years and one day to 20 years in prison if the plea-bargaining agreement will be materialized against a 25-year-old Nursing student who admitted to killing his mother.

Sellon said the court asked them for a recommendation for the sentence of Christian Lucky Dalangin who admitted killing his mother Rubirosa Tenchavez last August.

But the plea-bargaining agreement can only push through if the court, the offended party, the prosecutor and the National Bureau of Investigation, who conducted the investigation into the killing, will give consent.

“If one of them will contrast then the plea-bargaining offered by the father of the accused will not occur,” he said.

Sellon said he instructed Prosecutor Ricky Jones Macabay, the resident prosecutor of Regional Trial Court Branch 18, to get the recommendations of all parties involved.

“The plea-bargaining means to plead guilty to a lesser crime and lesser offense and all of the parties should give recommendations,” he said.

However, he said it must be given weight that in this case the husband is no longer close to his wife following their annulment.

“It is very necessary to get the side of two brothers of the accused if they will allow the plea-bargaining agreement,” Sellon said.

Sellon added the penalty of the parricide case which is faced by Dalangin is reclusion perpetua or the equivalent of 20 years to 40 years in prison.

However, he said if the parricide will be downgrade to homicide it will only merit 12 years and one day to 20 years in prison.

Sellon added if the accused serves only a 12-year sentence he can apply for parole.

The father of the accused, Virgilio, asked the court last Monday during the supposed schedule arraignment of Dalangin for a plea-bargaining agreement.

Virgilio asked for an eight-year imprisonment of his son but Sellon said it was too short.

Judge Gilbert Moises moved the arraignment to today.

Dalangin, in an extra-judicial confession, admitted to killing his mother inside their house at M. Gochan St. in Barangay Mambaling last August 23, 2011.

He said he slit the throat of his mother’s neck twice after the latter kept nagging him and buried her body in the backyard.– (FREEMAN)