Cebu police admits search for Bella tough

A cat and mouse game” is how Cebu police describe their ongoing search for Bella Ruby Santos, principal suspect in the kidnap-homicide case of 6-year-old Ellah Joy Pique.

While Task Force Ellah Joy is processing documents for a government-to-government request to extradite Britsh national Ian Charles Griffiths, lawyers representing him and Santos, his girlfriend, threatened to file a multi-million-peso lawsuit against them.

Senior Supt. Patrocinio Comendador Jr., Cebu provincial police chief, said British authorities are still monitoring the whereabouts of Griffiths even though the accountant already was released on police bail last month.

“This is a cat and mouse game between us. We are monitoring her but she is also monitoring us. It’s just a matter of who’s better,” Comendador said.

The British Metropolitan Police Service ended its inquiry on Griffiths in relation to the Pique case.

In Cebu, Santos’ lawyer Rameses Villagonzalo said his client and Griffiths plan to sue the witnesses tapped by the police in either a Cebu court or in the UK.

Lawyer Inocencio dela Cerna, lawyer of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Central Visayas (CIDG-7), and the task force welcomed their move.

The prosecution has at least 12 witnesses, including some minors who positively identified Santos as the woman who fetched Ellah Joy in the afternoon of Feb. 8. Santos and Griffiths were issued arrest warrants by the court but the police have yet to locate Santos 10 days after the warrants came out.

Regional Trial Court Judge Ester Veloso of Branch 6 yesterday issued an “alias” warrant of arrest, which will allow all law enforcement units to go after the couple.

Villagonzalo said he talked with Santos by phone last week but doesn’t know her whereabouts.

He said he asked, “Are you ready (to surrender)?”

“She’s asking for time. She is wondering why this happened although she didn’t hurt the girl (Ellah Joy),” Villagonzalo said.

“We also want her to surrender so trial can start. But it’s her call, especially that the case is non-bailable. It’s so difficult for her,” said Villagonzalo. With Correspondents Chito Aragon and Gabriel C. Bonjoc