Dennis Sytin to file petition for review of murder charges

Screengrab from PNP

MANILA, Philippines — Dennis Sytin on Tuesday said he would file a petition for review to reverse the Department of Justice’s “wrong and baseless resolution” tagging him in the death of his brother in Subic.

In a resolution dated July 3, the DOJ panel of prosecutors filed murder and frustrated murder case against Sytin and two others over the death of Sytin’s brother, Dominic, who was shot and killed in front of the Lighthouse Hotel in Subic in 2018.

“I am determined to immediately set aside the false and baseless charges against me as it is my right and the right of the ‘clearly innocent’ to be free from the trouble, expense and anxiety of a protracted trial,” Sytin said in a statement.

The alleged gunman, Edgardo Luib, claimed that Sytin was the mastermind in the killing of Dominic.

Sytin, however, denied this and claimed that he does not know Luib, calling the alleged gunman a “complete stranger” to him.

“It is unfortunate that I am being bound over to trial for a crime which I did not commit and which I had no knowledge, participation or involvement in, — and worse, one which is based solely on the confession of the supposed gunman, Edgardo Luib, who being a complete stranger to me, fabricated supposed meetings with me that never occurred just to fill-up and make his story seem credible,” Sytin said.

Sytin also lamented DOJ’s decision to ignore similar cases in the past that required relevant evidence to declare a probable cause to charge a person of involvement in a crime.

“In the Salapuddin case, the Supreme Court expressly warned that ‘an extrajudicial confession is not the evidence competent to establish the probability that a person participated in the commission of the crime“ and that such confession cannot be used against his co-accused as it is considered hearsay against him’,” Sytin said.

“Instead of heeding this clear admonition of the Supreme Court in settled jurisprudence which forms part of our legal system, the DOJ Panel of Prosecutors shirked from its duty to consider this uncontroverted fact and the overwhelming evidence that I presented to establish my innocence,” he added.

Olongapo Citys Regional Trial Court Branch 72 has ordered the arrest of Sytin and Ryan Rementilla over the case.

READ: PNP tags Sytin’s brother as murder brains; gunman arrested