THE Department of Justice on Friday
recommended the filing of murder charges against former Batangas
governor Jose Antonio Leviste, a day after his lawyers
petitioned the Court of Appeals to stop the reinvestigation of
the shooting of his long-time confidant Rafael delas Alas.
Manuel Singson, counsel for Leviste,
lambasted what he called the "indecent haste" of senior state
prosecutor Emmanuel Velasco in coming out with a resolution,
just two days after the reinvestigation started last Jan. 31.
Velasco filed an ex-parte motion before Judge
Elmo Alameda of the Makati regional trial court to admit the
amended information of homicide against Leviste and upgrade the
charge to murder, citing evidence culled by the medico-legal and
scene-of-the-crime operatives who went over the crime scene.
Makati City prosecutor Henry Salazar had
earlier filed a lesser offense of homicide against Leviste but
the latter’s arraignment was deferred by Alameda to give way to
the reinvestigation.
In his resolution, Velasco said the killing
of Delas Alas was attended by six aggravating circumstances
which qualify the offense as murder – treachery, use of superior
strength, evident premeditation, cruelty, and deliberately and
inhumanly augmenting the suffering of the victim, or outraging
or scoffing at his person or corpse.
No bail was recommended for Leviste’s
temporary liberty.
"There is no question that the
accused-appellant’s conscious intention was to kill, not merely
to main or injure, judging from the manner that he executed the
act, aiming at point-blank range at the victim’s head and neck.
Only a killer without compunction could deliver such deadly
shots at such defenseless and innocent victim," Velasco said.
He claimed that the manner in which Delas
Alas was shot ensured the assailant’s safety from defensive or
retaliatory act on the part of the victim. He said that if Delas
Alas was indeed armed at that time, he should have engaged
Leviste in a gunfight instead of shielding his face as indicated
by the defensive wound in his left forearm.
Leviste lawyers said the resolution smacked
of prejudgment on the part of state prosecutors. "It’s quite
obvious that Velasco acted with indecent haste. If it’s not
indecent, I can’t use another adjective to describe it. As we
said, this is nothing but a charade and a farce since before the
preliminary investigation, they already had a conclusion, and
this more than confirmed it. I am ashamed of the way he
(Velasco) is conducting himself as a lawyer," said Singson.
Singson said Velasco had not only committed
"an act of judicial discourtesy, but has made a mockery of our
judicial system" when he tried to jump the gun on the defense
which was awaiting the CA’s response to its petition for a TRO.
In the same petition, Leviste also asked the CA to rule that
there was no impediment to his arraignment on the lesser charge
of homicide, an event that would effectively bar his indictment
for murder for the same crime. – Evangeline C. de Vera
