The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said today that they will file a motion for reconsideration that will seek to reverse prosecutors’ decision to release the suspect in the brutal killing of teenager Christine Silawan.
In an interview with radio station DZMM this morning, NBI Region 7 Regional Director Tomas Enrile admitted that the NBI arrested the suspect without an arrest warrant on hand. However, he said that they still consider him as the crime’s primary suspect.
He said in a mix of English and Filipino: “Our case is not affected. The fiscal just decided that our arrest was not part of a hot pursuit operation.”
Enrile said that in cases there’s a hot pursuit operation, or a manhunt, a warrant of arrest is not needed. Their motion for reconsideration would seek to convince the prosecutors that the arrest was legal because it was all part of a manhunt.
He also admitted during the radio interview that the suspect’s confession, where he allegedly said he killed Silawan, occurred without the suspect’s lawyer present. However, Enrile said they are still certain that the suspect killed the teenager.
“He made a voluntary disclosure. We are morally certain that he participated in the crime,” Enrile said. “We are certain there was active participation [on his part] but we are not closing this case because he has accomplices.”
He also said that they are still searching for the suspect’s alleged accomplices and that several people have come forward to give the NBI information regarding their whereabouts. At present, Enrile said that the prosecutors are doing their preliminary investigation on the suspect.
The NBI maintains that the suspect killed Silawan out of jealousy. The NBI said he used a fake Facebook account and pretended to be a new suitor to lure her. They said that based on a CCTV footage they acquired, they met near the church where Silawan worked before the killing occurred.
Cebu Daily News reported that the suspect was ordered released by the Lapu-Lapu Prosecutors Office on Saturday afternoon. He was released because the NBI did not follow legal procedures during his arrest, according to the suspect’s lawyer Vincent Isles.
The same publication also reported that the suspect maintains that he is innocent of the crime, despite Enrile’s claims that he confessed to it.
Isles told Manila Bulletin: “[U]nder the hot pursuit theory, you must have personal knowledge as well as probable cause to believe that he was the one who committed the crime. He was arrested more than five days [after Silawan’s body was discovered] so there was no basis for warrantless arrest and preliminary investigation should be conducted instead.”
The suspect was arrested on March 16, according to SunStar Cebu.
Isles told the same newspaper that his client was allegedly brought to a safe house at an undisclosed location after he was released. His client plans to refute the allegations against him and will present witnesses to do so.
Silawan was a Grade 9 student whose half-naked cadaver was found in Lapu-Lapu City in Cebu on March 11. Her face was skinned to the bone, and some of her internal organs were also missing. According to an autopsy, there were no signs that she was raped.
A total of PHP1.6 million (US$30,451) has been offered by various groups to anyone who could offer information that would lead to the arrest of the perpetrators of her killing.
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