Bohol PB member withdraws petition questioning arrest

CEBU CITY– The legal team of Bohol Provincial Board Member Niño Rey Boniel has withdrawn the petition that challenged the validity of his arrest.

Lawyer Handel Lagunay, in open court, verbally relayed their intent during a hearing before Judge Marivic Trabajo-Daray of the Regional Trial Court Branch 52 of Talibon town in Bohol past 2 p.m. on Friday.

“After considering everything, we decided to withdraw our petition for a writ of habeas corpus. It is a collective decision by the legal team,” the lawyer told Cebu Daily News over the phone.

Lagunay, one of Niño’s six lawyers, refused to reveal in particular what prompted them to withdraw the petition.

Daray granted the plea to withdraw the petition for the issuance of a writ of habeas corpus.

Niño is the primary suspect in the slay of his wife, Mayor Gisela Boniel of Bien Unido town in Bohol, whose body was allegedly dumped on June 7 into the sea between Cebu and Bohol.

The Bohol police, upon the instructions of Chief Supt. Jonathan Cabal, head of the Regional Intelligence Division, arrested him around 10 p.m. on June 7, about 18 hours after his wife was killed, for allegedly holding captive Gisela’s best friend Angela Leyson and the latter’s 17-year-old son inside the resort in Bien Unido.

Around 4 p.m. on June 9, the police filed two counts of kidnapping and serious illegal detention complaints against Niño at the Bohol Provincial Prosecutor’s Office.

But Judge Daray, on the same day, ordered the immediate release of Niño because the police failed to file criminal complaints against the two suspects within the reglementary period of 36 hours.

The order stemmed from the petition of habeas corpus that Niño’s lawyers filed against the Bohol police, questioning the legality of the arrest of his client.

The police ignored the court order, saying they filed the first batch of criminal case against Niño on time.

Cabal said they could not also release Niño because the board member was rearrested in the evening of June 9, this time, for killing Gisela.

Parricide charges were filed against Niño and his eight alleged cohorts at the Lapu-Lapu City Prosecutor’s Office which has jurisdiction over the part of the sea where the victim’s body was reportedly killed and thrown.

A panel of prosecutors in Lapu-Lapu City on Tuesday ruled that the warrantless arrest made on Niño for the crime of parricide was valid. gal