Sotto: Medel play-acting to mislead the police

Philip Medel is obviously merely play-acting in retracting his confession on the Nov. 7 slaying of movie actress Nida Blanca and this could be part of a ploy to mislead the police, Sen. Tito Sotto said.

Sotto expressed the belief that Medel, confessed killer of Blanca, put on an act before the media in wailing, flailing his arms and even fainting while shouting his innocence, claiming torture to own the murder, and clearing Blanca’s husband Rod Lauren Strunk.

"Pang-FAMAS ang acting ni Medel," Sotto, himself a former actor, said. "It is straight out of a Michael Douglas movie where there are a lot of twists and turns, with the killer himself misleading the police."

He pointed out that a previous video tape even showed Medel smiling while admitting the slay, indicating that Medel was not tortured.

"The public should remember that whoever planned the murder of Nida also planned how to escape blame. Medel’s act is part of the plan to mislead the police," Sotto said.

Meanwhile, Sen. Francis Pangilinan said that the two statements of Medel should be properly evaluated before determining which is the truth.

"We should not immediately conclude that the second statement (recantation) is true and that the first (admission) is false. The process of preliminary investigation will determine which of the two statements is more credible," Pangilinan said.

He pointed out that the Supreme Court had already decided in a ruling that recantations should be taken with a grain of salt.

Sen. Ralph Recto, meanwhile, said that the recantation of Medel should teach a lesson to the police against publicizing developments in an ongoing criminal case.

"Next time, the police should do its work away from the klieg lights and refrain from reporting on the progress of an investigation in a piecemeal fashion or by installment, as if solving a crime is a telenovela," Recto said.

On the other hand, opposition Sen. Panfilo Lacson called for the immediate resignation of police Chief Superintendent Nestorio Gualberto following Medel’s retraction.

Gualberto, chief of the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, headed the investigation of the actress’ murder under Task Force Marsha.

Lacson said that he had doubted Medel’s claim that he was a professional killer because Medel also said that he was bothered by his own conscience.

"If he were a professional killer, why did he use a kitchen knife? Why did he not get the identity of the person to be killed? And why was blood quite few inside the car of Nida Blanca?" Lacson asked.

He said that Gualberto should have checked and counter-checked Medel’s statements first before presenting the latter to media because many innocent persons might get hurt.

"Gualberto must resign and apologize to Strunk and other persons who were hurt with the presentation of Medel," Lacson said.