The parents of slain international racing champion Ferdinand “Enzo” Pastor have appealed to the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to immediately locate his widow Dalia and take her into custody, after the Supreme Court reinstated her arrest warrant and hold departure order.
This was after the high tribunal reversed a Court of Appeals ruling that dismissed the parricide charge against Dalia, one of the three persons implicated in the ambush that killed Pastor in 2014, and ordered that her case be brought to trial.
In a statement on Friday, Tomas and Remedios Pastor said they remained optimistic that the DILG could still track down Dalia overseas with the help of the Interpol and foreign governments.
Possible location
They cited, as a recent example, the arrest of dismissed Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo in Indonesia.
“We believe that, with the DILG’s continued commitment, Dalia can also be apprehended and brought back to the Philippines to face the justice system,” the couple said.
The Pastors said they had received “credible reports” that Dalia left the country in 2015 and is now using a new identity.
Dalia had likely gone to either Indonesia or Malaysia, they added.
“With this, we humbly and urgently appeal to the Department of the Interior and Local Government and to Secretary Benhur Abalos, to extend their assistance in locating and capturing Dalia,” they added.
Pastor was shot dead in an ambush on the night of June 12, 2014, at the intersection of Visayas and Congressional Avenues in Quezon City.
Charges were later filed against Dalia and her alleged lover, Domingo de Guzman III, as masterminds, and against then Police Officer 2 Edgar Angel, the confessed gunman.
Trial still needed
Angel and De Guzman were arrested at the early stages of the case.
In 2020, the Court of Appeals granted Dalia’s petition to dismiss the charge against her, citing lack of evidence that she conspired with two other accused.
But the Supreme Court said “multiple parties” had given accounts to support allegations that she had an active hand in the plot to kill her husband, and that a trial was warranted to “fairly determine the truth.”
Pastor’s parents also asked the public for help in tracking down Dalia.
“If anyone has any information about Dalia’s whereabouts, we ask that you come forward and inform the proper authorities,” they said. INQ
The Pastors said they had received ‘credible reports’ that Dalia left the country in 2015 and is now using a new identity