Filing of murder raps vs Llamas slay suspect stalled

The Pasay City police are considering filling a murder charge against the principal suspect in the killing of Ateneo law graduate Jose Ramon Llamas. But this poses a dilemma to the police and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), sources privy to the investigation told The STAR in separate interviews.

In fact, the sources said the Pasay police would rather defer the filing of the charge against suspect Bashir Abdulrahman until he is arrested. The NBI shares this dilemma because the manhunt for Abdulrahman is a joint operation, the sources said.

"If the charge is filed, the police would consider the case closed. But they woudl have to wait for the warrant of arrest to be issued by a court before they could arrest Abdulrahman," one of the sources said.

It takes at least a month and a half before a Regional Trial court (RTC) issues warrants of arrest, the source said.

But in a separate interview, Pasay City police chief, Senior Superintendent Oscar Catalan, said he would not consider the case closed unless Abdulrahman, of Marawi City and Quiapo, Manila, is arrested. Catalan declined to comment on the reported "dilemma." But he said a case conference is scheduled this morning between his team and the NBI to "sort things out."

Catalan said the suspect "definitely faces a murder charge" because of the manner he allegedly killed the 26-year-old Llamas during a traffic altercation on Jan. 10.

"If he shot Llamas once during their argument, then that would have been homicide. But the suspect shot the victim three times, making sure that he was dead.

"That’s murder," Catalan said. Moreover, one of The STAR sources added that Llamas’ killing falls under murder because the suspect chased the law graduate after the latter bumped his motorcycle, causing him to fall.