EDITORIAL - Justice denied

Flight is often seen as an indication of guilt. Which is why people tend to believe Babes Reyes is somehow involved in the rape and murder of bank teller Candice Castro. A few days back Reyes showed up briefly at the National Bureau of Investigation to deny his involvement, then disappeared. He has gone to the press to reiterate his innocence, and haughtily announced that he had no plans of coming out of hiding any time soon.

Everyone implicated in this case is presumed innocent, but you don’t prove this by going into hiding, especially when a criminal case has been filed against you and the nation knows you are wanted by the police. Reyes should be particularly interested in clearing his name, since his father is an official of an agency under the Department of Justice: Bienvenido Reyes, intelligence chief of the Bureau of Immigration. Do fathers say that they can’t choose their children? Some probably do. But surely the immigration officer is a responsible public servant and father who can tell his son to come out and clear their family’s name. Who advised Babes Reyes to go to the NBI, another bureau under the justice department, before an alarm was sounded for his arrest?

Because of the family and bureaucratic ties involved here, the NBI should leave the investigation to the Western Police District, which has handled the case since the victim was found with 24 stab wounds last May 12 in her condominium unit in Malate, Manila. Better yet, Camp Crame may want to take over this investigation, to improve the chances that there will be no kid-glove treatment of any VIP suspect.

And if President Arroyo is still pursuing her role as top crimebuster, she may want to send word to the BI intelligence chief that the sooner Babes Reyes faces his accuser – in this case another tenant in the condominium, Philippe Marcelo, who tagged Reyes as the mastermind – the easier it will be to get himself off the hook. That is, if Reyes is truly innocent. Otherwise he is just a fugitive scared to face the consequences of a gruesome crime, and his father is not lifting a finger to promote the cause of justice.