Court junks Ivler mom’s bid to dismiss obstruction charge

MANILA, Philippines - A Quezon City court has dismissed the petition for certiorari filed by Marlene Aguilar-Pollard – the mother of road rage murder suspect Jason Ivler – seeking the dismissal of the obstruction charged filed against her.

In a three-page decision released yesterday, Regional Trial Court Branch 77 Judge Germano Francisco Legaspi dismissed the petition filed by Aguilar-Pollard as she failed to include the prosecution panel as respondents in her plea.

Legaspi cited an earlier ruling of the Supreme Court, which said the omission of the panel as respondents in the petition “is fatal and already enough cause for the summary rejection” of the petition.

Aguilar-Pollard named QC Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 37 Judge Augustus Diaz and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in the petition.

She sought the reversal of Diaz’s ruling that denied her bid for the dismissal of the obstruction of justice charge filed against her. Diaz has already inhibited himself from the case. 

But according to the judge, the duty to appear for and defend Diaz rests on the prosecutors and not on the NBI as it is the party interested in the case.

Aguilar-Pollard, the younger sister of singer-songwriter Freddie Aguilar, was charged for allegedly preventing authorities from arresting her son during the course of a murder investigation three years ago.

Ivler, who is facing murder charges in a separate court, was arrested at the house of his mother in a subdivision in Quezon City on Jan. 18, 2010. Prior to his arrest, Aguilar-Pollard insisted that she was not aware of his son’s whereabouts.