Cebu councilor’s adopted son cleared of direct assault, but…

CEBU CITY, Philippines—A day after he was meted 50 years imprisonment, the adopted son of Councilor Socrates Fernandez was able to get a sigh of relief after he was cleared in another case.

The court exonerated Joavan Fernandez of direct assault charges for allegedly ramming his vehicle into a police car driven by Chief Insp. George Ylanan, then chief of the Investigation and Detection Management Branch (IDMB) on Feb. 6, 2011.

READ: Cebu councilor’s adopted son gets 40 years for grenade possession

According to Judge Pamela Baring-Uy of the Municipal Trial Court in Cities Branch 6, there was no sufficient basis to prove Fernandez was guilty of the charges filed against him.

But he will remain in jail after he was found guilty of illegal possession of a hand grenade and a gun by Judge Soliver Peras on Tuesday.

Joavan, now 32, was meted the maximum penalty of reclusion perpetua or up to 40 years in prison.

He will serve another six to 10 years in jail for illegal possession of firearms and for violating the 2013 election gun ban.

Fernandez will be transferred from the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center to the Leyte Regional Prison, in Abuyog town, Leyte where he will serve the penalty.

This was the second conviction of Fernandez in a span of three months.

Last February, Fernandez and his five friends were sentenced from 21 to 36 years imprisonment after they were found guilty of abducting and mauling two vulcanizing shop workers whom he suspected of stealing his father’s spare tire in 2008. RAM