Salvador Tapic Paragoso Sr., 61, who was arrested and detained for murder, claims that they got the wrong man and that it was his son, Salvador Paragoso Jr., who committed the crime and not him. | Paul Lauro
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Was a 61-year-old lolo mistakenly arrested by the Minglanilla police for murder or was he really the one in the alias warrant of arrest?
One of the lawyers of the of the Legal Section of the local government of Minglanilla is investigating the claim of the senior citizen that it was his son, his junior, as the culprit in the murder case and not him.
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Lolo claims they got the wrong man
Salvador Tapic Paragoso Sr. claimed in an interview with CDN Digital at the detention cell that it was his son Salvador Paragoso Jr., who did the crime and that they got the wrong man.
Salvador Sr. said that his son had not been seen since the son was accused of murder, and they did not know his present whereabouts.
But Minglanilla police in a press statement said that they arrested the right person.
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Police: We got the right man in the arrest warrant
This was confirmed by Police Lieutenant Colonel Gerald Ace Pelare, spokesperson of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7).
Pelare said that they based their arrest on the middle name of the person and that was the middle name of Paragoso Sr. in the alias warrant of arrest.
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How lolo was arrested
Paragoso Sr. was arrested on September 25 when he returned to get a national police clearance from the Minglanilla Police Station.
Police Captain Kalvin Jomari Golitod, chief of the Minglanilla Police Station, in a statement, said that they reviewed the documents of Paragoso Sr. and they found out that he had an alias warrant of arrest for murder.
When he returned to have his fingerprints and photo taken, Golitod said that they then informed Paragoso Sr. that he had an unserved warrant of arrest for murder and that he would be arrested.
Unserved warrant of arrest
The unserved alias warrant of arrest for murder was issued by Presiding Judge James Stewart Ramon E. Himalaloan of Branch 7, Regional Trial Court 7th Judicial Region, Cebu City. And this had a Criminal Case No. 89457 that was dated on August 12, 2020.
They then arrested Paragoso Sr.
But then Paragoso Sr. insisted that he did not commit the crime, but it was his son, Paragoso Jr., who did it.
He then made an appeal to his son to come out from wherever he was because he (his father, Paragoso Sr.) was wrongfully arrested for his son’s crime.
Mayor answers call for help from lolo’s family
Meanwhile, Mayor Rajiv Enad of Minglanilla town answered the call of the family, the wife of Paragoso Sr., who sought the help of the mayor.
Enad ordered the Legal Division of the local government of Minglanilla to look into the case.
Lawyer Hope Villaflor of the Legal Division of Minglanilla said that they would go to court to look at the court records there.
Villaflor could not say that the police were wrong in arresting Paragoso Sr. or not.
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Minglanilla gov’t Lawyer to check court documents first
But the wife of Paragoso Sr. said that it was really their son who committed the crime and not her husband.
Villafor said that he saw a screenshot of the arrest warrant and it was really the name of Paragoso Sr.
He said that if it was really the wrong name in the arrest warrant then there would be proper pleadings that they would make in court.
“Atong ipaagi sa legal gyod nga pamaagi,’ said Villaflor.
(We will use legal means for this.)