THE legal team of Bohol Provincial Board Member Niño Rey Boniel has withdrawn the petition that challenged the validity of the latter’s arrest and sought his immediate release.
Lawyer Handel Lagunay, in open court, verbally relayed their intent during a hearing before Judge Marivic Trabajo-Daray of the Regional Trial Court Branch 52 of Talibon town in Bohol past 2 p.m. on Friday.
“After considering everything, we decided to withdraw our petition for a writ of habeas corpus. It is a collective decision by the legal team,” he told the Cebu Daily News over the phone.
Lagunay, one of Niño’s six lawyers, refused to reveal in particular what prompted them to withdraw the petition.
Judge Daray granted the plea to withdraw the petition for the issuance of a writ of habeas corpus.
Niño, the primary suspect in the slay of his wife, Mayor Gisela Boniel of Bien Unido town in Bohol, was arrested by the Bohol police upon the instructions of Chief Supt. Jonathan Cabal, head of the Regional Intelligence Division, at around 10 p.m. last June 7, about 18 hours after his wife went missing.
He was particularly arrested for allegedly holding captive Gisela’s best friend, Angela Leyson, and the latter’s 17-year-old son inside a resort in Bien Unido.
At around 4 p.m. last June 9, the police filed two counts of kidnapping and serious illegal detention complaints against Niño at the Bohol Provincial Prosecutor’s Office.
But Judge Daray, on the same day, ordered the immediate release of Niño because the police failed to file criminal complaints against him within the reglementary period of 36 hours.
The police, however, refused to obey the court order, saying they filed the first batch of criminal cases against Niño on time.
Parricide charges were eventually filed against Niño and his eight alleged cohorts at the Lapu-Lapu City Prosecutor’s Office which has jurisdiction over the part of the sea where the victim’s body was reportedly killed and thrown.
A panel of prosecutors in Lapu-Lapu City on Tuesday ruled that the warrantless arrest made on Niño for the crime of parricide is valid.
Search
Meantime, divers involved in the search and retrieval operations for the body of Gisela expanded their search towards the seas of Camotes after finishing the search in the seawaters of Caubian and Olango Islands, where the body was allegedly dumped.
Chief Insp. Junel Caadlawon said the current may have moved the body northward. He expressed hope that the Side Scan Sonar used by the Naval Forces Central would detect the body.
Divers from Bien Unido are also scouring the seas surrounding the town, leading towards Caubian, in case the body was dumped there or was taken by the current, said Caadlawon.
The Philippine Coast Guard is also looking for a fisherman from Barangay Caw-oy on Olango Island who reportedly saw from a distance a motorbanca, with passengers who allegedly dumped something into the sea at the same time that Riolito Boniel said they dumped the body of Gisela.
Riolito is Niño’s cousin and among the suspects in the killing of Gisela.
Gisela’s cousin from Siquijor again attended yesterday’s dive.
Volunteer divers, Reinero Tatoy and Emeterio Bonghanoy, who both own dive shops, also joined the search, unmindful of the cost of diving equipment and supplies.
In Bien Unido, the municipal government has not lowered its flag to half mast, as officials await the results of the search and retrieval operations.