CONVICTED Cebu city policeman Adonis Dumpit is asking the Court of Appeals (CA) to allow him to post bail while waiting for the resolution of his appeal.
Counsel Benjamin Militar assured the appellate court’s 20th division in Cebu City that Dumpit would not flee.
“His risk of flight is non-existent. The records of the case show that he is a well-decorated police officer. He has been in detention for a considerable period of time, that if taken together with credits for
good behavior, may already qualify him for parole,” Militar said in the petition for bail.
Judge Ester Veloso of the Regional Trial Court Branch 6 in Cebu City convicted Dumpit of homicide in August last year for killing 17-year-old suspected robber Ronron Go.
The controversial policeman was meted six to nine years and four months of imprisonment.
He was also ordered to indemnify the heirs of the victim and pay P50,000.
Dumpit was originally charged with murder for Go’s death in barangay Tejero on Dec. 14, 2004.
But Veloso downgraded the charges to homicide, saying the prosecution failed to prove that there was “treachery and use of superior strength” on the part of the accused when he shot the victim.
Dumpit’s lawyers have requested the judge to revisit some portions of her ruling.
They said the shooting incident was a “chance encounter” and the victim and his companions were ready to kill Dumpit.
The judge stood by her ruling, prompting Dumpit’s lawyers to seek the intervention of the appellate court.
Militar said their sole purpose in appealing the case is to clear Dumpit’s name and give the policeman a chance to return to the police service.