INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines – The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday said it has upheld the finding of probable cause and reinstated the arrest warrant and the hold departure order against Dalia Guerrero Pastor as a co-conspirator in the killing of her husband, award-winning racer car driver Ferdinand “Enzo” Pastor.
In a decision written by Associate Justice Amy Lazaro-Javier, the SC’s Second Division reversed the ruling of the Court of Appeals (CA) which had dismissed the criminal case for parricide against Dalia, who remains at large.
Records showed that in 2014, Enzo was driving a truck to Clark, Pampanga, together with his mechanic Paolo Salazar. After the truck came to a stop at the intersection of Visayas Avenue and Congressional Avenue, a man approached the driver’s side of the truck and shot Enzo, killing him.
The prosecution charged Police Officer 2 Edgar Angel as the gunman, and Domingo De Guzman III and Dalia as masterminds in the killing. Angel and De Guzman were arrested.
Dalia went to the CA to question the charges against her.
The CA ruled in Dalia’s favor and dismissed the charge of parricide for lack of probable cause after Angel failed to identify her as the mastermind of the plot to kill her husband.
The CA also said even if Dalia knew the agreement between Angel and De Guzman, this was not enough to prove that she conspired with them.
In reversing the CA’s decision, the SC ruled that finding probable cause needs only evidence showing that, more likely than not, a crime has been committed by the suspects. It does not require evidence of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
The SC also said there was sufficient evidence that identified Dalia as a co-conspirator and her participation in Enzo’s killing.
Enzo and Dalia’s househelp claimed to have witnessed Dalia’s affair with De Guzman.
Angel claimed De Guzman showed him a photo of Dalia with bruises and asked him to kill Enzo for beating up Dalia.
Another witness, Alvin Nidua, a self-proclaimed gun-for-hire, claimed he met with Dalia and De Guzman, who both offered him P200,000 to kill Enzo, but Nidua declined because the amount was too low.
Meanwhile, Salazar, who was with Enzo on the truck on the way to Clark, Pampanga, testified that Dalia called Enzo several times to locate them.
The SC found that all these show that Dalia had an active hand in planning Enzo’s ambush.
However, it said the finding of probable cause against an accused does not violate their right to be presumed innocent.