Prosecutor recommends dismissal of Castro’s concubinage rap vs Greco

Cebu City Assistant Prosecutor Rodulph Joseph Carillo has recommended the dismissal of the concubinage complaint filed by suspended Cebu City assistant prosecutor Mary Ann Castro against her husband Leodegreco Sanchez and Maricel Pino Gregory.

Carillo said Sanchez’s wife in his first marriage, Virginia, should be the proper party to file a complaint for concubinage and not Castro as it is the former who should be the offended spouse.

Carillo’s recommendation was transmitted yesterday to Cebu City Prosecutor Liceria Lofranco-Rabillas for her approval.

Castro, in her complaint, said she and Sanchez were married on Aug. 18, 2015 and separated on Oct. 3, 2015 and that she filed the complaint for concubinage because Sanchez allegedly cohabited with Gregory as husband and wife after their separation.

For her part, Gregory claimed she was living with Sanchez even before his marriage to Castro and that Sanchez was merely intimidated into the marriage as he was not in his proper state of mind at the time of the ceremony since he had just come out from a drug rehabilitation center.

Sanchez, in his counter-affidavit, also claimed his marriage to Castro was not valid as he did not have full control of his mental and psychological faculties when he married her; and that his first marriage with Virginia Magnase-Sanchez is still subsisting.

Both Castro and Sanchez admitted that the latter married Virginia on June 3, 1999, which is presumed to be still valid as no evidence had been submitted to indicate otherwise.

Carillo also noted that an order dated Oct. 19, 2015 of the Regional Trial Court Branch 29 in Toledo City had also dismissed the petition to nullify the marriage between Sanchez and Virginia.