Reyes seeks TRO vs reopening of slay case

MANILA, Philippines - Fugitive former Palawan governor Joel Reyes has asked the Court of Appeals (CA) to stop the Department of Justice (DOJ) from reopening the case against him and his brother, Coron Mayor Mario Reyes, involving the killing of broadcaster Gerry Ortega. 

In a petition for prohibition filed last Friday, Reyes asked the appellate court to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) enjoining the DOJ from resolving the petition of Ortega’s family appealing the resolution of the first panel of prosecutors that cleared him and his brother in the murder case.

Reyes’ lawyers led by Demetrio Custodio Jr. argued that the DOJ could no longer review the murder charges since the CA has quashed them.

They cited rulings of two divisions of the CA that nullified the second preliminary investigation of the DOJ, where findings of the earlier panel were reversed and which led to the filing of the case against the Reyes brothers in court.

Reyes sought relief from the CA after the reported pronouncement of Justice Secretary Leila de Lima that her office would review the Ortega family’s petition pending with her office.

“The Office of the Secretary of Justice remains obstinate and is set to find a way around the obstacles arising from the Honorable Court’s twin decisions,” Reyes said in his petition, dismissing De Lima’s plan as an “obvious legal maneuver to frustrate and defeat the finding that there is no probable cause” against him.