Case vs Dominguez brothers, et al. not downgraded, says De Lima

Raymond Dominguez. INQUIRER file photo

MANILA, Philippines—Justice Secretary Leila de Lima on Wednesday clarified that the state prosecutors, who handled the investigation into the killing of lawyer Oliver Lozano’s son, did not downgrade the criminal complaint they recommended against the Dominguez brothers and their four alleged cohorts.

Speaking with reporters, De Lima also defended the decision of Assistant State Prosecutors Amor Robles, Eden Wakay-Valdez and Bernardo Fernandez to file a case for car theft with homicide instead of the much serious complaint of car theft with murder, as Lozano and his family had asked the Department of Justice.

“I saw the resolution. I think it was done appropriately. It’s a complex crime of (car theft) with homicide and no bail was recommended. Effectively, it’s the same if it’s murder,” she said.

“There’s no downgrading,” De Lima stressed. “The fact that it’s not the same charge as expected by the complainant does not mean that there’s a downgrading.”

De Lima also took exception to Lozano’s accusation that money changed hands in the “undue delay” in the release of the DOJ resolution approving the case against suspected car theft gang leaders, brothers Roger and Raymond Dominguez.

“With due respect, may I advise Attorney Lozano to go slow in making those accusations. If he has evidence about the alleged bribery, then by all means he should submit the evidence to me,” she said.

In a strongly-worded motion for reconsideration, Lozano assailed the panel of prosecutors of filling a less serious criminal complaint against the men suspected of killing and burning the bodies of his son, Emerson, and his driver Ernanie Sencil.