DOJ: Authorities need to ask fiscal to reconsider release of Lapu-Lapu slay suspect

MANILA, Philippines — Authorities will have to ask the prosecutor handling the case to reconsider the release of the suspect in the killing of a Lapu-Lapu City schoolgirl to get him back in government custody, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said Wednesday.

This after President Rodrigo Duterte, a former city prosecutor himself, on Tuesday night said that he ordered the local prosecutor to “recall the dismissal and have the guy re-arrested.”

Guevarra explained in a message: “The proper procedure is for the arresting officers to ask for reconsideration of the prosecutor’s release order and, if granted, proceed with the inquest.”

On March 23, the Lapu-Lapu City Prosecutor’s Office ordered the release of the suspect, a teenager, because his arrest was invalid.

But Duterte, in a speech at the PDP-Laban campaign sortie in Koronadal City, South Cotabato, said that the suspect should be arrested following the principle of “hot pursuit.”

The Rules of Court provides that a law enforcement agent or a civilian can lawfully arrest someone without a arrest when:

• In his presence, the person to be arrested has committed, is actually committing, or is attempting to commit an offense
• An offense has just been committed, and he has probable cause to believe based on personal knowledge of facts or circumstances that the person to be arrested has committed it
• The person to be arrested is a prisoner who has escaped from a penal establishment or place where he is serving final judgment or is temporarily confined while his case is pending, or has escaped while being transferred from one confinement to another

Duterte added that hot pursuit can continue even beyond days after the occurrence of the crime. “For as long as there is somebody who conducted investigation and made followup every day, that is still hot pursuit to me,” he added.

Guevarra on Wednesday explained that the hot pursuit arrest rule is “not bound by time in the sense that the pursuit may last for days without any substantial interruption until the suspect being pursued is arrested.”

The Justice secretary however stressed that the pursuit should have started “immediately after the commission of the crime.”

“These time elements are not defined under the rules and are determined largely by the particular circumstances of each case,” he also said.

Suspect arrested days after killing

Agents of the National Bureau of Investigation Region VII arrested the suspect days after the body of a 16-year-old schoolgirl was found in a vacant lot in Lapu-Lapu City on March 11. She was found naked from the waist down, and her body bore multiple stab wounds. A local crime laboratory also said that some of her organs were missing.

The regional office of the NBI said that the suspect was linked to the crime based on several pieces of evidence, including text messages with the victim.

The STAR reported that on March 24 that Lapu-Lapu City police chief Limuel Obon assured the public the investigation into the case is still continuing.

“I would not give any details regarding the suspect. We should respect the position of the NBI,” Obon said.

“But we are jointly conducting further investigations,” he added.