Ruby Rose murder trial: CA junks businessman’s bid to stop indictment

MANILA, Philippines - The Court of Appeals (CA) has turned down a bid of fugitive fishing magnate Lope Jimenez to stop his indictment in the killing of Ruby Rose Barrameda, whose body was fished out of the waters off Navotas in 2009.

In a three-page resolution, the CA’s 14th Division dismissed his plea for the issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO) or writ of preliminary injunction enjoining the Department of Justice (DOJ) from proceeding with his prosecution in the murder case.

In a nutshell, the CA held there are “no compelling reasons to grant such extraordinary remedy.”

The CA also stressed it could not grant the relief sought by Jimenez because doing so would be tantamount to resolving the merits of the case.

“The incidents subject of the application for (TRO, among others) are closely intertwined and traverses matters and issues in the main petition; and, as a general rule, courts should avoid issuing (an injunction order) which, in effect disposes of the main case without trial,” read the ruling penned by Associate Justice Victoria Isabel Paredes.

The CA added that issuing a halt order would be “a prejudgment of the main case and a reversal of the rule on the burden of proof since it would assume the proposition which petitioner is inceptively bound to prove, for indeed, a complaint for injunctive relief must be construed strictly against the pleader.”

Associate Justices Japar Dimaampao and Elihu Ybanez concurred in this ruling.

Jimenez, in his petition, specifically asked the CA to nullify the resolutions issued by DOJ on Aug. 11, 2010 and Dec. 28, 2012.

Aside from prosecution witness Manuel Montero’s lack of credibility, Jimenez claimed that the testimony of the lone witness is unreliable and should be discarded.

Montero had retracted his previous testimonies in which he linked Barrameda’s husband Manuel Jimenez III, father-in-law Manuel Jimenez Jr., the petitioner, and three other men to the victim’s murder. The fishing magnate and Barrameda’s father-in-law are brothers.

The DOJ, meanwhile, was given 10 days from receipt of notice to answer the petition.