Salvador Tapic Paragoso Sr., 68, 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 — A lawyer has said that they will be filing a petition for habeas corpus to free the 68-year-old man who was allegedly mistakenly arrested instead of his son who is a Jr. for a 13-year-old crime in Minglanilla town, Cebu.
Lawyer Hope Villaflor from the Legal Division of the Minglanilla Local Government Unit (LGU), said in an interview with radio station dYHP that this would be their next step so that the elderly man would be released from prison as soon as possible.
READ: Writ of habeas corpus
Writ of Habeas Corpus
The writ of habeas corpus is an order that commands an individual who has restrained another individual to present the prisoner at a designated time and place, and to explain the reason behind the detention.
This means that the court will then decide whether the detention was legal or not. If the court decides that it is not, the prisoner will be released.
Villaflor said that they were still sorting out in court why the mix-up between the father and son allegedly happened.
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Discrepancies found in names submitted in court
“So among gisuta sa korte nganong nahitabo nga ang pangalan sa accused nga mi-appear didto sa caption sa alias warrant, ngalan man sa amahan nga si Salvador Tapic Paragoso,” he said.
(We are still finding out in court why this happened that the name of the accused that appeared there in the caption of the alias warrant is the name of the father who is Salvador Tapic Paragoso.)
According to Villaflor, they found discrepancies in the names submitted to court.
“So among gi-ukay ang court records, nakita namo didto nga aduna gyuy discrepancies sa pangalan,” he said.
(So we loooked at the court records, we saw there that there are really discrepancies in the names.)
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Mixup of names
Villaflor said that in the complaint affidavit that was submitted by police to the prosecutor’s office, the name of one of the four suspects was Salvador alias “Bodoy” Paragoso.
However, the name of the suspect that was put in the endorsement letter was Salvador Tapic Paragoso, recorded as a 21-year-old man.
Villaflor said that this was the reason why the court records contained the name of the father which was relayed for the issuance of the warrant of arrest.
He said that this is why the elderly father received a hit when his documents were checked and was then arrested.
Villlaflor also stated that there was also a discrepancy in the age as the suspect in the warrant was recorded as 21 years old.
However, the man that was arrested 13 years later was 68 years old.
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Ages of suspect don’t match
“Si tatay, matod pa sa pamilya, is 68 years old na. Kung atong ikomparar sa 21 years old, 13 years ago because kato nga kaso is 2010 man, dili gyud ta makaingon nga katong gidakop nila mao gyud to si tatay. Kung atong tan-awon ang record nga 21 years old ang suspect at that time,” he said.
(Tatay, according to the family, is already 68 years old. If we compare to 21 years old, 13 years ago, because that case is still from 2010, we cannot really say that the person arrested is really Tatay. If we look at the records that the suspect was 21 years old at that time.
Villaflor said that they would do what they could to help free Paragoso Sr., who has been detained for five days, as soon as possible.
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Lolo was arrested on September 25, 2023
Salvador Tapic Paragoso Sr. was put into jail on Monday, September 25, 2023, while he attempted to get a national police clearance at the Minglanilla Police Station.
In an earlier statement, Police Captain Kalvin Jomari Golitod, chief of the Minglanilla Police Station, said that they reviewed the documents of Paragoso Sr. and found that he had an alias warrant of arrest for murder.
Police then informed Paragoso about the unserved warrant of arrest under his name and arrested him when he came back to have his fingerprints and photo taken.
However, the elderly man claimed that it was his son, Salvador Culalho Paragoso Jr., who committed the crime instead of him.
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Minglanilla Mayor’s help sought
The man’s family insisted on the mixup and sought the help of Mayor Rajiv Enad of Minglanilla town who ordered for the legal team to look into the case.
Police in Minglanilla, in a press statement, said that the man was taken into custody based on the name in the warrant which was Salvador Tapic Paragoso alias “Bodoy” and his address, Tungkop Minglanilla, which was confirmed by his identification card.
It also disclosed that due diligence was exercised on the implementation of the warrant of arrest and that police would be conducting an investigation to verify the claims of the alleged mixup.