MANILA, Philippines—Authorities plan to charge Ma. Ramona Belen “Mara” Bautista with obstruction of justice for flip-flopping on her initial statement to the Las Piñas police in the early morning of October 29, hours after her elder brother Ramgen was shot and stabbed to death inside their house at BF Homes subdivision in Parañaque City.
Chief Inspector Enrique Sy, head of Task Force Ramgen of the Parañaque City police, said their lawyer was still ironing out some kinks in the complaint to make sure it would not be thrown out by either the court or the prosecutor for technicalities.
“We are studying this matter very carefully because we don’t want to bungle this case,” he told reporters outside the Paranaque prosecutor’s office Friday afternoon. “We don’t want small matters, for instance the venue where the complaint is filed, to affect it in anyway.”
Sy said the legal team was evaluating where they would file the complaint since the killing of Ramgen, 23, took place in Parañaque while Ramona gave a statement in Las Piñas, which she eventually retracted.
The task force, which is leading the investigation of the murder, is closely coordinating with Las Piñas police chief Senior Superintendent Romulo Sapitula, according to Sy.
Sy explained that the Las Piñas police was not able to make Ramona give her statement under oath when she reported the incident to the authorities. When she came to the police station at past 1 a.m. of October 29, there was no prosecutor on duty to administer the oath, the official added.
Ramona had told Las Piñas police she was kidnapped by her brother’s alleged assailants—two men—whom she wasn’t able to identify. She claimed further that the men forcibly took her away from their house and later dropped her off near a Las Piñas mall.
She retracted this statement days later, saying she got confused due to the trauma of seeing her brother being stabbed to death. She made the retraction in a live television interview and in a subsequent prerecorded message before she fled to Istanbul last week.
Ramona, 22, and her brother Ramon Joseph (RJ), 18, were tagged as the masterminds in the murder of their brother Ramgen over what some witnesses described as a dispute over the family’s finances.
Ramgen purportedly had control over the allowance given monthly to his eight other siblings by their father, former Senator Ramon Revilla Sr.
Ramona has publicly denied the allegation but she has until next week to formally dispute the murder and frustrated murder charges the police filed against her before the City Prosecutor’s Office. She may need to fly back to Manila to execute her sworn affidavit.
But if she doesn’t appear personally before investigating prosecutor Leah Roma, the charge may be deemed up for resolution. Prosecutors can then recommend the filing of appropriate cases before the court.
RJ, on the other hand, was scheduled to be arraigned on Wednesday next week, but his lawyer Dennis Manzanal wanted his client to undergo a preliminary investigation. RJ earlier waived his right to a preliminary investigation, which resulted in the case being filed and raffled off to Judge Fortunato Madrona of the Parañaque Regional Trial Court branch 274.
Sy also belittled the alibi of Michael Jay Nartea and Roy Francis Tolisora, which they presented as a defense in denying the allegations against them.
As far as Sy was concerned, “the alibi has no bearing,” saying it was weak.
He explained that positive identification trumps any alibi being offered as a defense.
The two suspects had claimed they were not present when the attack against Ramgen occurred, saying they were elsewhere and not at the vicinity of BF Homes. They, however, pointed to Ramona and RJ as the masterminds.
But witnesses the police gathered all point to Nartea and Tolisora as among the plotters of the murder, and the people who hatched the plan were the victim’s siblings.
At least three more suspects are being hunted down by police. They are Glaiza Vista, her partner Norwin de la Cruz, and a certain “Brian.”
Vista and De la Cruz allegedly facilitated the transaction while Brian’s involvement has yet to be established.
Sy appealed to the public for any information that may lead to the capture of the remaining suspects. Those with any information about the suspects may call the police hotline 117.