ILOILO City – The 10 persons who executed affidavits supporting the Iloilo Police Provincial Office’s (IPPO) murder complaint on the death of businesswoman Claire Diergos of Pavia, Iloilo are all safe, according to Police Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Pinuela, spokesperson of the IPPO’s special investigation taskforce (SIT).
They may apply for inclusion to the Department of Justice’s Witness Protection Program but only after the IPPO’s complaint would have been elevated to the court for trial, said Pinuela.
At the moment, the complaint is with the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office which is determining if there is probable to bring the case to court.
“Ara lang sila nagahulat nga ma-resolve ang case sa fiscal. Ang Department of Justice na iya ang ma-determine if they qualify to be included in the Witness Protection Program,” said Pinuela.
On Jan. 5, the SIT filed a murder case at Provincial Prosecutor’s Office against 10 suspects. Seven have been identified. From what radio station DYRI RMN-Iloilo gathered from its sources, the respondents were the following: Peter Paul Lopez, Saliha “Sally” Lopez, Carlos Paul Lopez, Felix Paul Lopez, Raffy Sorioso, Gardo Ibrahim, and Rudelyn Sumbog
Peter Paul Lopez is a former mayor of San Dionisio, Iloilo. Sally is his wife who is running for vice mayor in San Dionisio, and Carlos and Felix are his sons.
On Friday night, the Lopez’s legal counsel Atty. Dwight Trasadas spoke to DYOK Aksyon Radyo Iloilo.“Isa lang ma-assure ko. My clients have no motive whatsoever to commit the alleged crime. Wala gid sang rason nga ipapatay abe sang kliyente ko nga ginatumod ninyo ang biktima,” he stressed.
The lawyer confirmed that the Lopezes have yet to receive subpoenas and/or copies of the complaint. He, however, shared an observation.
“Based on what I have gathered from the news reports, it would seem that the police officers are in a quandary as to the filing of this case kay kun lantawon naton daw indi sila sigurado kun sin-o ang file-lan nila sang kaso. As a matter of fact, naka-file na sila [sang] kaso, indi gani nila pag-mention kun sin-o gin-file-lan,” said Trasadas.
He added: “Indi man ni ‘ya pwede nga ma-file ka sang kaso nga you should not inform the respondent that the case was filed against him because it’s part of the procedural rights sang akusado or sang ina nga kaso.”/PN
