Archival family wants hearing moved to city

The family of slain lawyer Noel Archival will ask the Supereme Court (SC) to transfer the venue of the trial from the court in Argao to the Cebu City Regional Trial Court (RTC) citing security reasons.

Lawyer Democrito Barcenas, one of the counsels of the Archival family, said the safety of the complainants and witnesses is of “paramount importance.”

“Yes, we could not avoid risks even if the hearings will be conducted in Cebu City. But there is greater risk if trial will be held in Argao. Remember what happened to Noel. He was ambushed far from Cebu City,” he told reporters yesterday.

Three policemen of the Highway Patrol Group (HPG) were implicated in the Feb. 18 ambush of Archival and his companions.

Barcenas is optimistic the High Court will grant their request.

Archival, along with his aides Candido Miñoza, Alejandro Jaime, and Paolo Cortes, were on their way to Cebu City when they were ambushed in Dalaguete town, southern Cebu in the afternoon of Feb. 18, 2014.

Only Cortes survived.

Charges of mutiple and frustrated murder were filed last week against Senior Supt. Romualdo Iglesia, Senior Insp. Joselito Lerion, and PO1 Alex Bacani before the RTC in Argao which has jurisdiction over crimes that happened in Dalaguete.

Defense lawyer Inocencio de la Cerna Jr. asked Judge Maximo Perez of the Argao RTC to “hold in abeyance” the issuance of arrest warrants against the accused.

The court has set an oral argument on Thursday.

But Barcenas said De La Cerna did not furnish them with the pleading which the defense filed in court.

But De La Cerna, in a phone interview yesterday, said he sent copies of the pleading to lawyer Gloria Lastimosa-Dalawampu, the other counsel of the Archival family.

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