Pasay cops’ raps vs Aiko’s ex need ‘clarity,’ says prosecutor

Commercial model and chef Martin Jickain and his friend Rommel David Almoro were released from detention Friday night as the Pasay City Prosecutor’s Office said the police must still produce additional evidence and be clearer about the charges they are filing against the two men.

Jickain is the former husband of actress and former Quezon City Councilor Aiko Melendez. He and Almoro were arrested in the wee hours of Friday after the former allegedly pointed a gun at two Pasay City policemen who were trying to pacify a drunk

Almoro.

The incident happened in front of a restaurant on the Roxas Boulevard service road, where the officers saw Almoro flashing a dirty finger and shouting at a driver of a taxi then blocking his car, before he directed his anger at the approaching policemen.

The two men were presented for inquest later in the day, with the 31-year-old Jickain being sued for grave threats and violation of the gun law–despite being able to present a license for his .38-cal. Ruger revolver. Almoro, 27, was cited for resisting arrest and direct assault.

But in a resolution issued around 6 p.m., inquest prosecutor Reynaldo Ticyado said the allegations made by the police “do not substantially establish the fact that the said respondent (Jickain) indeed threatened the complainants with the commission of acts constitutive of the crime of grave threats.”

As to Almoro’s alleged offenses, Ticyado said the “mere act of shouting [a Filipino invective] and making the sign of a dirty finger [is] not tantamount to an attack, employment of force and serious intimidation against the complainant.”

It is “thus imperative for the instant complaints to undergo a further investigation to accord the complainants an opportunity to adduce additional evidence to substantiate the charges and to determine with sufficient clarity the precise liabilities of the herein respondents thereunder, if there be any,” the prosecutor added.

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