Murder, parricide raps junked vs suspects in Barrameda case

MANILA, Philippines — A Malabon court has dismissed the murder and parricide charges filed against the estranged husband and father-in-law of Ruby Rose Barrameda, the woman whose body was encased in cement in a steel drum that was later thrown into the Navotas River in 2009.

In a decision dated Aug. 15, acting presiding Judge Edwin Larida Jr. of the Malabon Regional Trial Court Branch 170 said the evidence presented failed to “establish probable cause” against Manuel Jimenez III. There was also no mention of Jimenez in the police testimony.

“They did not likewise supply any slightest hint of his involvement in the dastardly act. None of them has shown he had directly or indirectly participated in the killing of his estranged wife,” the judge said.

The Barrameda family, through a statement, called Larida’s order a “patent nullity.”

In a press conference on Monday, they said they had filed a motion for reconsideration as they called on Larida to inhibit himself from the case due to his “unmistakable bias in favor of the accused.”

“It is respectfully submitted that the aforesaid dismissal proceeds not only from an error in judgment but also from grave abuse of discretion,” they said in their Sept. 23 motion.

In a separate order dated July 10, Larida also dismissed the case against Barrameda’s father-in law, Manuel Jimenez Jr., and coaccused Leonard “Spyke” Descalso and Norberto Ponce.

“There is no denying that the prosecution, after presenting all its witnesses and documentary evidence, has miserably failed to prove the guilt [of the accused],” he said.

Two years after she went missing, the body of Barrameda, 27, was recovered in 2009 with the help of a witness, Manuel Montero, who linked the Jimenezes to her murder.