Ruby Rose Barrameda’s kin to sue lawyer for abandoning case

The parents of the slain Ruby Rose Barrameda are protesting what they said was the negligence of a private prosecutor in representing them, causing them to miss an initial deadline for the filing of a comment at the Supreme Court, and possibly endangering their case against one of the suspects in their daughter’s killing.

In an interview on Wednesday near the Barrameda home in Las Piñas, Robert Barrameda, father of the victim, accused Ana Luz Cristal of the Cristal and Tenorio Law Offices of “abandoning” them “without even informing them about it beforehand (ng walang sabi sabi)” in the parricide case filed against Manuel Jimenez III, Ruby Rose’s estranged husband. Barrameda added they would soon sue Cristal.

“We are studying what charges we can file against Cristal. We are also looking for another lawyer,” Barrameda said.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer tried to reach Cristal for comment but as of this posting, she has not responded to calls and text messages.

He said Cristal’s “unprofessional negligence” resulted in them missing the initial deadline for the filing of a comment on Jimenez’s motion that asked the high court to reconsider its Nov. 24, 2014 resolution.

In the November 2014 resolution, the high court denied Jimenez’s petition for review on certiorari that sought to annul a Court of Appeals decision affirming the finding of a probable cause on the parricide charges.

“Cristal did not inform us that we were supposed to file a comment. And to think that the Supreme Court asked us to file that as early as February. We were supposed to have ten days to comment upon the Supreme Court notice,” Barrameda said.

According to Barrameda, he only found out they were supposed to file a comment when he himself went to the Supreme Court in August to follow up on the case.

He said he decided to do this after Cristal, who he said was the only one in their camp who has been receiving official notices from the high court in connection with the parricide case, stopped receiving calls and replying to his text messages.

“And everytime I would call her office, her secretary would say she was out,” Barrameda said.

Barrameda said their camp was forced to file a motion seeking for an extension of the period within which they should have filed the comment.

He said the motion was filed at the Supreme Court on Tuesday. Kristine Felisse Mangunay