Enzo Pastor, winner of the 2002 Asian Formula Renault Championship. —Edwin Bacasmas/Inquirer file photo
MANILA, Philippines — The Supreme Court has reinstated the arrest warrant and hold departure order (HDO) against Dalia Guerrero Pastor, an alleged coconspirator in the 2014 killing of her husband, award-winning race car driver Ferdinand “Enzo” Pastor.
In a Feb. 26 decision made public only on Thursday, the high court’s Second Division overturned the Court of Appeals (CA) ruling that dismissed the parricide case against Dalia and ordered a “full-blown trial” of all the accused.
Finding ample evidence that she participated in her husband’s assassination, the high court said “Dalia’s acts … show that she not only served as a strong motivation to carry out the plan, but she had an active hand in planning the ambush of Enzo.”
READ: Enzo Pastor slay: Dalia loses bid to void arrest warrant
“Too, her abrupt absence right after a warrant of arrest was issued on her lends credence to the prosecution’s case that she is probably guilty of the offense charged,” it added.
The decision on the consolidated cases G.R. Nos. 255100, 255229 and 255503 was penned by Associate Justice Amy Lazaro-Javier.
The high court emphasized that the mere existence of probable cause does not equate to a conviction and did not violate an accused’s right to be presumed innocent.
Night of the killing
The case dates back to June 12, 2014, when Pastor and his mechanic, Paolo Salazar, drove to Batangas to get a car that he would use for a race.
The two left Pastor’s house around 1 p.m. and were back around 7 p.m. where they were greeted by Dalia. At 9:45 p.m. they left the house again, driving a yellow truck on which the racing car was loaded and headed to Pampanga to drop off the vehicle.
As the truck stopped at the intersection of Visayas and Congressional Avenues in Quezon City, an armed man suddenly approached its driver’s side and shot Pastor dead.
Charges were later filed against Police Officer 2 Edgar Angel for allegedly being the gunman, and against Domingo de Guzman III and Dalia as the masterminds.
Angel and De Guzman were arrested, while Dalia remained at large.
Dalia went to the CA to question the charges, filing a petition for certiorari against Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 91 for denying her motion to dismiss the case and ordering her arrest.
Charged with the killing of Enzo Pastor in 2014 (from left) are then Police Officer 2 Edgar Angel, the alleged mastermind Domingo “Sandy” de Guzman III, and the victim’s widow Dalia Guerrero Pastor. —Inquirer photo
‘Mere knowledge’ not enough
In a decision issued in 2020, the appellate court dismissed the parricide case against her for lack of probable cause and recalled both the arrest warrant and the HDO issued by the QC RTC.
According to the CA, Angel did not identify Dalia as the person who accompanied De Guzman when he met with them, and instead just kept referring to her as “babae” (woman).
Even assuming that she knew the transaction between De Guzman and Angel, the CA said, that “mere knowledge” did not equate to conspiracy.
The CA explained that even if the two indeed had an affair and that she was the source of some vital information that helped plot Enzo’s killing, it was not proof that she conspired with them. It noted the absence of other evidence that she abetted the plot.
In overturning the CA’s decision, the Supreme Court cited Article 8 of the Revised Penal Code which states that a conspiracy exists when two or more persons come to an agreement concerning the commission of a felony and decide to commit it.
The tribunal said a finding of probable cause needs only to rest on evidence showing that, more likely than not, a crime has been committed and was committed by the suspects.
Accounts from ‘multiple parties’
“It is not a pronouncement of guilt, rather it merely binds the suspect to stand trial. Evidence required to establish probable cause does not need to amount to guilt beyond reasonable doubt,” the Supreme Court said.
Contrary to the CA’s pronouncements, there was sufficient evidence on record clearly identifying Dalia as a coconspirator, it said.
It cited the testimony of Pastor’s house help claiming to have witnessed Dalia’s affair with De Guzman and the account of Alvin Nidua, a confessed gun-for-hire, who claimed he met with Dalia and De Guzman and that both offered him P200,000 to kill Enzo, an amount he declined for being too low.
It also noted the testimony of Salazar, who was with Pastor on the truck going to Pampanga and recalled that Dalia phoned her husband several times to keep track of their location.
“In the face of several claims involving multiple parties and in light of the atrocious offense resulting in the death of Enzo, the ends of justice are better served by allowing [the trial court] to fairly determine the truth through a full-blown trial on the merits,” the Supreme Court said.