CCPO to challenge dropping of parricide raps vs. Jastiva

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City Police Office is set to file a motion for reconsideration after the city prosecutor’s office dismissed the parricide case they filed against Leonardo Jastiva, president of the International Missionary Society of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church Reformed Movement.

CCPO director Patrocinio Comendador said this after prosecutors decided to dismiss the parricide case saying it lacked “probable cause” to pin down Jastiva.

Comendador said that the fiscals are not yet able to consider what the police call their strongest evidence —the text messages on Jastiva’s cellular phone which is still a subject for forensic examination at the National Telecommunication Commission.

Comendador said that he has not yet received a copy of the resolution from the prosecutor’s office but they are now preparing the filing of the case with the help of NTC.

Their investigation will still center on the text messages on the cellular phone but they are continuously gathering more evidences such as the location of the car reportedly used in allegedly kidnapping Judith to establish more evidences.

Aside from the pending result from the NTC, the police admitted that they have a hard time solving the case because the family of Jastiva’s wife, Judith, is not interested in filing the said charge against the pastor.

Jastiva is accused of killing his wife sometime in February.

Assistant City Prosecutor Liceria Lofranco-Rabillas recommended the dismissal of the parricide case against Jastiva saying that while the police were able to show that text messages sent by the alleged kidnappers came from the pastor’s phone and were forwarded to his other cellular phone, there was no evidence showing that Jastiva himself made the messages.

She said that while there may be strong reasons to suspect that Jastiva had a hand of killing his wife, mere suspicion, no matter how strong, can never ripen into evidence.

“Suspicion or accusation is not synonymous with guilt. Without substantial evidence, any conclusion pointing to the respondent as the killer would merely be based on pure speculation or conjecture,” the resolution said.

“There may be strong reasons to suspect that Jastiva may had a hand in the killing of his wife, Judith, but under the law and existing jurisprudence mere suspicion, no matter how strong, can never ripen into evidence,” Rabillas said.

“The text messages alone, without any other evidence could not be made a basis for concluding that the respondent is the culprit,” Rabillas added.

Jastiva told police he and his wife Judith, 38, were heading home to barangay San Isidro, Talisay City, on board a motorcycle when they were blocked by a blue Mitsubishi Lancer.

He said the perpetrators chained him to his motorbike then forced Judith into the car. She was found dead a week later.

The pastor soon found himself a suspect and his story of abduction doubted by the police.

The pastor was arrested and detained in the CCPO headquarters on Feb. 19.

Police arrested him after discovering that one of Jastiva’s two cellular phones had the same number as the sender of threatening text messages from the kidnappers. — Niña G. Sumacot and Jasmin R. Uy/BRP (THE FREEMAN)