Nida slay case: Back to square one

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has summoned anew three Atlanta Center security guards who were on duty at the time multi-awarded actress Nida Blanca was killed in 2001.

NBI agents said the testimonies of Diolito Molinez, Roberto Cañete and Ricky Alvarez will help strengthen the case against Blanca’s American husband, Rod Lawrence Strunk.

The Philippine government is set to re-file an extradition case against Strunk, the principal accused in the Blanca murder, after the government petition was junked by US District Court Judge Gregory Hollows, who said there were inconsistencies in the evidence against Strunk

An NBI agent said Molinez, Cañete and Alvarez were initially charged for conspiracy in Blanca’s murder, but they were eventually cleared.

"Now that there is a need to pursue the case, we will need their testimonies. They should have seen something unusual hours before the actress was found dead," an agent of the bureau said.

Authorities are also set to meet with Kaye Torres, Blanca’s only daughter, to finalize strategies in the re-filing of the extradition case against Strunk so he can face trial for the murder of Blanca.

NBI Director Reynaldo Wycoco said those attending the meeting with Torres are agents of the NBI, state prosecutors from the Department of Justice (DOJ) and investigators from the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG).

Wycoco said Torres’ legal counsel, Harriet Demetriou, is also expected to attend the meeting set for next week.

The NBI chief said investigators, state prosecutors and private lawyers have discussed point-by-point and line-by-line the US judge’s decision to junk the plea of the Philippine government to extradite Strunk to face murder charges.

The NBI tagged Strunk as the principal suspect in the murder of Blanca, Dorothy Jones in real life, whose body was found inside her car parked at the sixth floor of Atlanta Tower in Greenhills, San Juan last Nov. 7, 2001.

The NBI case against Strunk had been anchored on the testimony of self-confessed killer Philip Medel Jr., who claimed Strunk hired him to kill Blanca.

Though Medel retracted, charges were filed against Medel and Strunk . A Pasig judge eventually issued warrants of arrest against the two.