ENZO PASTOR
MANILA, Philippines—The parents of slain international car racer Ferdinand “Enzo” Pastor asked a Makati City court on Tuesday to grant them custody of his two young sons with wife Dalia, who has yet to surface after being tagged as one of the suspects in his June 12 ambush.
Tomas and Remedios Pastor filed an opposition in the Makati Regional Trial Court – Branch 136 seeking the dismissal of an earlier petition filed by Dalia’s parents Xavier and Valerie Guerrero, who wanted to be declared as the permanent guardians of the children.
In their Sept. 1 petition, the Guerreros asked that they be given the right to custody of the two minors, but Pastor’s parents assailed it as an “obvious move” to control the properties and other businesses inherited by Enzo’s children.
Remedios Pastor said she and Tomas were being prevented from seeing their grandchildren who are currently under the custody of the Guerreros.
Their legal counsel, Enrique dela Cruz, said he saw no reason for Dalia’s parents to stop the Pastor couple from seeing their grandchildren, aged six and nine. “The opposition we filed today also asks the court to allow Enzo’s parents to see the two boys even on a provisional basis,” Dela Cruz said in an interview.
But the other party had refused to allow even a provisional arrangement, he said.
DALIA GUERRERO-PASTOR
Because of this, Dela Cruz said, the court will have to schedule a hearing on the Pastors’ next petition to be filed this week, this time asking to be allowed to visit the children.
“What have they done wrong that they have to attend a hearing just to visit the children considering the fact that they were able to see the two kids when Enzo was still alive?” Dela Cruz added.
The Guerreros could not be immediately reached for comment on the Pastor’s latest legal move.
In their petition, they insisted that they had the right of guardianship over the two boys since Dalia left them in their care. They also maintained that they had idea no idea of their daughter’s whereabouts.
Accused of plotting her husband’s death, Dalia is facing murder and parricide charges together with her alleged lover, businessman Domingo de Guzman. Both were implicated by the alleged gunman, PO2 Edgar Angel, who initially confessed to the killing but later made a retraction, claiming he was tortured and ordered to follow a “script” by the Quezon City police.
Dalia had yet to show up in preliminary investigation hearings being conducted by the Department of Justice, but her lawyer submitted a memorandum on Oct. 24 questioning the charges and noting that the police had made no actual accusations against her.
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