Bohol Provincial Board Member Niño Rey Boniel is escorted back to his detention cell in Cebu City hours before he is transferred to a jail facility in Bohol nearer his hometown in Bien Unido. FILE PHOTO / JUNJIE MENDOZA / CEBU DAILY NEWS
TALIBON, Bohol—Board Member Niño Rey Boniel, in handcuffs, walked into a courtroom here on Thursday in a prisoner’s yellow shirt with a tired look on his face.
He pleaded not guilty to charges of illegal detention and kidnapping being heard at the Regional Trial Court Branch 52.
Some relatives and constituents from Bien Unido town attended the arraignment on Thursday to show support for the beleaguered official who was also accused of killing his wife, Bien Unido Mayor Gisela Boniel.
“I don’t believe it (the accusations against Niño),” said one of his supporters who identified himself as Alex. “He was a good leader.”
Niño arrived at the sala of Judge Marivic Trabajo-Daray at 8:50 a.m. from the Talibon district jail.
The court has set the preliminary conference on July 19 where both the prosecution and the defense will line up their witnesses and mark their pieces of evidence.
The charges stemmed from the claim of Angela Leyson, Gisela’s friend, that Niño held her and her son to prevent them from reporting to authorities about what happened to the mayor. Niño, Leyson said, took Gisela to a resort in Bien Unido allegedly to kill her.
The mayor has been missing since June 7. Efforts to find her body, which was believed to have been dumped in the waters between Bohol and Cebu provinces, failed.
Leyson did not show up during the arraignment but was represented by her lawyer, Lenelyn Pangilinan.
Pangilinan said her client was traumatized by what happened and had to undergo stress debriefing.
Niño is facing a separate parricide complaint in the Lapu-Lapu City prosecutor’s office in Cebu for allegedly killing Gisela.