Lawyer’s word: Orate shooter won’t flee PH

Bulacan provincial board member Allan Robes has no plans to leave the country to evade the homicide charges filed against him in connection with the shooting of Noel Orate Sr., ex-boyfriend of former Quezon City  Representative Nanette Castelo-Daza.

Robes’ lawyer, Alfredo Villamor, made this assertion yesterday as he vowed to oppose pleadings from Orate’s heirs seeking the issuance of a hold departure order on his client and the upgrade of the charge to murder.

Villamor told the Inquirer that Robes “has no intention to flee,” especially since he is a government official.

In a hearing Friday, Judge Luis Zenon Maceren of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 218 gave the defense 10 days to submit its opposition to the motion for reinvestigation filed by the Orates.

Villamor maintained there were no qualifying circumstances to justify a murder charge, such as the abuse of superior strength or treachery on the part of his client.

Robes faces trial for shooting Orate five times at the house of Daza, his mother-in-law, on the night of Feb. 10. The Dazas had claimed it was an act of self-defense while the Orates insisted that their father’s death was premeditated.

Daza and Orate, whose marriages to different partners had been annulled, had a 12-year relationship.

The court tentatively set Robes’ arraignment on March 13. Orate’s lawyer Eduardo Bringas said the victim’s son and namesake, Noel Jr., and a sister were at the hearing, but Robes was absent.