Case vs Vice Mayor’s wife: Court dismisses motion to stop reinvestigation

CEBU, Philippines - For lack of merit, the court denied the motion for reconsideration filed by Ronda Vice Mayor Jonah John Ungab’s wife, who sought for the reversal of its order granting the reinvestigation of the case for slight physical injuries filed against her.

 Judge Grace Veloso-Fernandez of Municipal Trial Court in Cities Branch 8 ruled that she found no ground to reverse her June 8 order granting the omnibus motion for reinvestigation filed by lawyer Jiecel Tiu.

 “After due evaluation of the motion for reconsideration of the accused and the opposition of the prosecution, the court finds no justifiable reason to reverse its order of June 8, 2015, granting the motion for reinvestigation,” Fernandez said in her order.

 In her motion, Pearl Ungab alleged that Tiu failed to present grounds for the case’s reinvestigation and that Tiu’s omnibus motion was filed beyond the five-day reglementary period as mandated under Section 7, Rule 112 of the Revised Rules of Criminal Procedure and is not in harmony with the Revised Rule on Summary Procedure.

 Tiu filed an opposition to the motion for reconsideration, seeking its denial for lack of merit.

 She said the five-day reglementary period mentioned by Pearl is applicable only to the accused and the motion for reinvestigation is not among the prohibitive pleadings mention in Section 19 of the Revised Rules on Summary Procedure.

 In her motion, Tiu insisted that Pearl be charged for frustrated murder instead of slight physical injuries.

 With the foregoing, Fernandez ruled in favor of Tiu.

 “…the prosecution was able to adduce sufficient grounds to justify the conduct of a reinvestigation. As the court stressed in its earlier order, the assertions of the prosecution with regard to the circumstances and factual details surrounding the incident are compelling reasons to warrant the re-evaluation of the initial findings by the investigating prosecutor,” Fernandez’s order stated.

 Fernandez also said there’s no need for Tiu to present new evidence in order to support her motion because it is not prerequisites for reinvestigation.

 As to the five-day reglementary period, Fernandez said it only applies to the accused, citing Section 7 of Rule 112 of the Revised Rules on Criminal Procedure.

 Fernandez further said the motion for reinvestigation is not barred under the Revised Rules on Summary Procedure as alleged by Pearl.

Tiu filed a complaint for frustrated murder against Pearl before the Cebu City Prosecutor’s Office, accusing the latter of hitting her with a baseball bat on February 26, 2015 in Barangay Cogon Ramos, Cebu City.

 Assistant City Prosecutor Liceria Rabillas, however, downgraded the complaint to slight physical injuries.

 Rabillas ruled that “the fact that the respondent just ran towards her car and banged the right passenger window with her fist and tried to open the door without any weapon at hand, would tell that she does not have the plan to kill the complainant.” (FREEMAN)