DOJ dismisses case vs Vilma's fugitive brother-in-law

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Justice (DOJ) has dismissed the charges against former Batangas Vice Governor Richard “Ricky” Recto for an alleged murder attempt of former Batangas Governor Armand Sanchez.

Recto was accused to be behind the 2006 bombing of Sanchez's Humvee that killed the latter's driver and close-in security.

"(Senior Deputy State Prosecutor) Theodore Villanueva recommended that the case against Recto be dismissed for lack of evidence," DOJ said in a statement on Tuesday.

Recto is brother-in-law to incumbent Batangas governor Vilma Santos-Recto and brother of Senator Ralph Recto.

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State prosecutors added that no probable cause has been found to indict Recto for the crime. A resolution dated December 26, 2013 formally dismisses the case against Recto.

"After an assiduous evaluation of the facts of the case and the evidence submitted against Recto, SDSP Villanueva found 'non-existence of probable cause to hold him for trial for the crimes committed'," the statement reads.

In 2009, Batangas City Regional Trial Court Branch 3 issued an arrest warrant for Recto for the complex crime of double murder with frustrated murder.

Recto denied the charges and has since been in hiding.

Sanchez then offered a P1-million bounty for Recto, confident that there is "sufficient proof" against him for the June 1, 2006 bombing. Sanchez died from brain hemorrhage in 2011.

Recto was reportedly sighted at the wake and burial of his mother last November.

Read: Vilma's fugitive in-law seen at ma's wake, burial