THE SUSPECT in the death of Jay Ryan Reblora, a car enthusiast who was first reported as an accident fatality early last year, now faces murder charges after the Court of Appeals granted the petition of the victim’s family to upgrade the case from homicide.
In a nine-page order, Justice Stephen Cruz of the CA’s 5th Division said Las Piñas Regional Trial Court Judge Salvador Timbang Jr. committed grave abuse of discretion when he denied the motion filed by Reblora’s father who pressed for the graver charge.
Timbang was ordered to direct the city prosecutor’s office to amend the charges against the suspect, Jose Lito Monreal, in “order for it to conform with the body and material allegations in the information.”
The Reblora family is insisting that 30-year-old Jay Ryan was the victim of a conspiracy allegedly involving his friends. Aside from Monreal, they want nine more persons charged, namely Albert Gerard Goco, Arthur Emil Guillen, John Daniel Ocampo, Ernest Lyle Lucido, Rocelino Danan, Philippe Michael Granada, Bea Labilles, Luisa Ysza de Real and Eden Manlapaz.
The victim and his friends were car aficionados known in Las Piñas as the BNB (Built Not Bought).
Monreal was driving Reblora’s car when it hit and killed the owner past midnight of Jan. 25, 2015, in Las Piñas. On the night of the incident, they were gathered on Plaza de Venicia Street, Barangay Talon Dos, in front of the house of Lucido who was then celebrating his birthday.
In their affidavits, the friends said Reblora’s death was an accident, maintaining that he “suddenly jumped” in the path of the oncoming car driven by Monreal. The vehicle was Reblora’s Toyota Corolla, which had been modified to run on a 5.2 turbo-charged engine.
The victim sustained fractures on the skull, arms and legs, as well as a laceration on a knee. The findings were mainly based on the report and photos submitted by the emergency responders that arrived at the scene.
But the victim’s family found something odd: The photos showed that Reblora died wearing only his shirt and underwear. In their petition, they offered an explanation why Reblora was found by the responders in that condition.
Victim may have been ‘bullied’
“Jay may have been bullied and the (respondents) may have grabbed his board shorts and underwear,” the petition said. “(They) held him and forced the shorts off his body (while) his briefs were stretched and deformed. Then they took his car keys and rode off. Jay, now naked and embarrassed, may have fought back or tried to give chase and recover his shorts in the middle of the street, or he may have been pushed…and hit by his speeding car driven by Monreal.”
The petition also noted that there were no “skid marks” at the site to indicate that Monreal suddenly stepped on the brakes to avoid hitting the victim. The family took this as a sign that the car “was driven intentionally forward at a high speed.”
The petition also quoted the victim’s brother John as saying that Reblora’s other clothes—his sweater, shorts and socks—
were recovered near the “point of collision, intact and without any tear despite the extreme damage to the car and Jay’s injuries.”