Ruby Rose in-law stays put in Angono hospital

MANILA, Philippines - Lawyer Manuel Jimenez II, one of two principal suspects in the murder of Ruby Rose Barrameda-Jimenez, will stay at the Angono Medics Hospital (AMH) until he finds a room at the Philippine Heart Center (PHC), his lawyer said yesterday.

“My client is trying very hard to secure a room but there is no room available yet (at the PHC),” Jimenez’s lawyer Mario Aguinaldo said at the hearing of Jimenez’s petition for bail yesterday.

Malabon Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 170 Judge Hector Almeyda last week granted Jimenez’s plea to stay on at the AMH until Sept. 22 “under the vigorous objection of the prosecution.”

Almeyda, after being assured by lawyers that Jimenez will not flee, granted the plea and ordered the transfer “within 48 hours” after receipt of the court order. The prosecution, led by lawyer Rowena Guanzon, did not object.

Aguinaldo also raised the issue of the prosecution granting interviews immediately after the hearing. Aguinaldo scored the interview granted by Ruby Rose’s sister, Rochelle Barrameda, after Jimenez’s arraignment last week.Jimenez is Ruby Rose's father-in-law.

“The (Barramedas) may be interviewed but they must not pass judgment on the health of the accused (Jimenez),” Aguinaldo said, referring to Barrameda describing Jimenez’s confinement as “nothing but drama.”

Guanzon, in defense of her client, argued that Barrameda did not solicit the interview. “The press asked the questions and counsel (Aguinaldo) cannot impose prior restraint,” she said.

Guanzon said lawyer Ferdinand Topacio, who claimed to represent fugitive businessman Lope Jimenez, the other primary suspect and Jimenez's brother, “deliberately sought the media in a press conference.”

“I will have him disbarred,” Guanzon said when interviewed after the hearing yesterday.

During the press conference, Topacio presented Lope’s driver, who claimed Ruby Rose and whistle-blower Manuel Montero were into illegal drugs and were illicit lovers.

Almeyda, in response, again admonished both parties to refrain from giving interviews to the media and that any further interviews should be limited to procedural issues, not the merits of the case.

During yesterday’s hearing, Guanzon presented Superintendent Leo Francisco, chief of the National Capital Region Police Office’s intellligence and special operations unit, as a witness.

Francisco was in charge of an operation to retrieve what Montero claimed to be Ruby Rose’s body in waters one nautical mile from the shores of Navotas City last June 10.