Arraignment of Jaworski’s son reset for 4th time

NOT TODAY Ryan Joseph Jaworski (in white), who is facing charges for attempted murder and illegal possession of firearms, hurriedly leaves the court after his arraignment is moved to June 9. MARICAR BRIZUELA

For the fourth time, a Makati City court rescheduled the arraignment of Ryan Joseph Jaworski—son of basketball legend and former Sen. Robert Jaworski—and co-accused Joselito Au who are facing charges for  attempted murder and illegal possession of firearms.

Makati City Regional Trial Court Branch 139 Presiding Judge Benjamin Pozon apologized on Thursday for not being able to resolve the motion for reconsideration (MR) filed by the younger Jaworski.

“The motion… has not yet been acted upon by this court because Makati judges were asked to attend an in-court seminar and I had no time to resolve this,” Pozon said as he reset the arraignment to June 9.

Ryan Jaworski, who attended the proceedings, avoided the media and quickly left the courtroom after the postponement was announced. His legal counsel, Terence Dawang, said they filed the MR after the court denied their earlier omnibus motion that sought a reexamination of the case.

The two accused were originally scheduled to be arraigned on Nov. 11, 2015, but this was moved to Feb. 10 after Dawang said they had filed a petition for review in the Department of Justice.

The Feb. 10 arraignment was again reset to the following week since Jaworski had filed an omnibus motion while Au submitted an MR.

On Feb. 17, the arraignment was once again rescheduled by the judge after Jaworski’s lawyers told the court that they had just been informed of the denial of their omnibus motion earlier in the day. Pozon set the arraignment on April 21 to allow Jaworski’s lawyers to file their motion for reconsideration.

The 40-year-old Jaworski was arrested in September at Makati Medical Center where he was treated for a gunshot wound in the thigh following a shootout with policemen from the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO).

According to the NCRPO intelligence unit, it had received a tip about a group engaged in gunrunning and was able to arrange a transaction through undercover agents, who expected to meet with the suspects at the corner of Chino Roces corner Arnaiz Avenues in Makati.

But the buy-bust operation went awry when the suspects sensed the trap, resulting in a shootout.

Jaworski and Au were were charged with four counts of attempted murder, with the former also facing charges of illegal possession of firearms after he as found keeping a Benelli M4 Super 90 shotgun.

Jaworski was released after he posted bail of P480,000 for the attempted murder charge and P100,000 for the other case. With John Cyril Yee