PB member, 2 others indicted with murder

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines— The Leyte Prosecutions Office has formally filed its information for murder charges, without bail, against Provincial Board Member Anlie Apostol, and two other civilians, in the killing of a certain Dennis Mesias on September 12, 2012.

Prosecutor Maria Arlene Hunamayor Cordovez, in her resolution said the information for murder was filed before the Regional Trial Court of Carigara town in Leyte, against Apostol and two others, Vilma and Alfredo, both surnamed Obaob.

Anlie is the daughter of Leyte’s 2nd district Representative Sergio Apostol and is now contesting the candidacy of incumbent, Carigara Mayor Eduardo Ong.

The indictment of the murder case came after Anlie’s bodyguard Alexander Tremendal executed an extra-judicial confession admitting that he was the one who killed Mesias, allegedly upon orders of the provincial official and with the help of the Obaobs.

Tremendal, in his affidavit, stated that sometime in May 2012, and in the following months until September 11, same year, Mesias was suspected as primary responsible of stealing gasoline products from the gasoline station reportedly owned by Apostol.

Anlie and the Obaobs, in their counter-affidavits, denied the accusations against them for “being downright false and blatantly malicious.” They slammed the Tremendal confession as “all lies and politically motivated.”

The extra-judicial confession by Tremedal is wanting of probative value, is procedurally defective and inadmissible in evidence for not conforming to the requirements of Section 3 of the Judicial Affidavit rule.

The prosecutor however maintained that the instant case is not entirely dependent on the extra-judicial confession of Tremedal, considering that the private complainant, Arlene, the widow of Mesias, has her own narration of what happened to her husband before the murder.

“As a wife, it was natural that her husband confided to her about threats to his life, which is why she had it reported and entered into the blotter of the barangay, supported by documentary evidence,” said Cordovez.

The prosecutor’s information also disclosed that such narration and evidence of the widow is already “sufficient to establish probable cause against the three accused in this case.” It also said that the three conspired, planned and helped each other in committing the crime.

Last Tuesday, lawyer Leo Giron, head of the panel of legal counsels of Anlie had frmally filed its judicial determination of probable cause before the RTC-branch 34 in Carigara. (FREEMAN)