For the second time, the five policemen from the regional unit of the PNP Highway Patrol Group (HPG) who were implicated in the ambush-slay of lawyer Noel Archival early this year have asked the Cebu Provincial Prosecutors’ Office to inhibit themselves from handling the case.
Lawyer Ryan Gabuya, an associate of defense lawyer Inocencio dela Cerna, filed the pleading before the prosecutors’ office yesterday morning.
“We just want to reiterate the blatant influences hovering over the instance case. I hope the prosecutors’ office will consider our reasons,” Gabuya told reporters.
The defense panel earlier sent a letter to Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, requesting the latter to take over the case. No resolution has been made for the first pleading.
They said Archival’s brother, Cebu City Councilor Nestor Archival, “wields considerable power and influence” which would compromise the investigation by the prosecutors’ office.
The formal request was made by Senior Supt. Romualdo Iglesia, Senior Supt. Joselito Lerion, Chief Insp. Eduardo Mara, SPO4 Edwin Galan and PO1 Alex Bacani.
Gabuya said they will exhaust all legal means to protect the rights of the respondents.
“We’re hopeful that the prosecutors’ office will inhibit itself from handling this case. But, at the end of the day, they have the prerogative to either grant or deny our request,” he said.
Dela Cerna, the main counsel of the respondents, earlier said there is no doubt that his clients are already doomed and there is no way that they can expect a fair, just and decent treatment from any of the investigative bodies in Cebu City.
Five prosecutors are presently handling the case against the five policemen who are facing charges of multiple and frustrated murder in relation to the fatal shooting of Archival and his companions.
The five HPG-7 policemen are also facing a separate investigation before the Office of the Ombudsman in the Visayas for using impounded vehicles.
Archival, along with his companions Candido Miñoza, Alejandro Jaime, and Paolo Cortes were ambushed inside their vehicle while traversing the national road in Dalaguete town, south Cebu in the afternoon of Feb. 18, 2014 from a hearing in Dumaguete City.
Only Cortes, Archival’s on-call assistant, survived the attack.