2 more charged in Nida case — DOJ

The Department of Justice (DOJ) ordered the filing of charges against two more suspects in the murder of actress Nida Blanca after their motions to drop them form the list of accused in the Nov. 7, 2001 slay were junked.

The DOJ junked the motion of former ISAFP chief Gen. Galileo Kintanar and Blanca’s friend Elena de la Paz, for exclusion from the list of accused. They were originally charged as accessories and as an accomplice for murder, respectively.

"Being an accomplice, a person cooperated in committing a crime while an accessory is a person that did something after the crime, either to cover up or facilitate the case," the DOJ said.

With the dismissal of the motion for reconsideration, Kintanar and De la Paz would be included in the list of accused in Blanca’s murder, along with Blanca’s American husband Rod Lawrence Strunk and Philip Medel Jr.

The resolution of the case against Kintanar and De la Paz would be used to boost a new extradition request for Strunk, who has been in the US since January 2002.

At present, only Strunk and Philip Medel Jr. have been charged with murder before the Pasig City Regional Trial Court. Only Medel is locked up in jail and facing trial.

The first extradition case against Strunk was dismissed by a US district judge.

Blanca’s body had 13 stab wounds when found inside her car at the sixth floor of Atlanta Centre in Greenhills, San Juan in the morning of Nov. 7, 2001.

Kintanar was originally charged as an accomplice for murder following reports that Medel and other suspects met at his house in Quezon City before the killing of Blanca.

De la Paz, on the other hand, failed to provide information on the whereabouts of Strunk at the time of the killing of Blanca.

"We carefully considered the arguments raised in the motion for reconsideration as well as evidence on record and found no such irreversible error that would justify the modification, much less reversal of assailed resolution," DOJ Assistant Chief State Prosecutor Leah Armamento said, referring to the Kintanar motion.

Armamento presented a similar argument to the motion of Blanca’s friend that charges against her were based on speculation.