Jason Ivler could still afford to smile when a Quezon City court found him guilty of murder on Nov. 24, 2015. —EDWIN BACASMAS
The Court of Appeals has upheld the guilty verdict handed down by a Quezon City judge in the murder case against Jason Ivler, who killed the son of a former Malacañang executive in a fit of road rage more than eight years ago.
The court’s 14th Division dismissed Ivler’s appeal as it gave credence to the testimonies of SPO3 Edgar Tiodin and Archie Castillo, who both said they had witnessed how Ivler gunned down Renato Ebarle Jr. in a traffic altercation on Santolan Road on Nov. 18, 2009.
The CA said Judge Luisito Cortez of Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 84 was correct in sentencing Ivler to reclusion perpetua, or a prison term of up to 40 years, without eligibility for parole. It also upheld the monetary award of more than P9.3 million to the victim’s family and increased the civil indemnity by almost P600,000.
Ivler is a former member of the US Army and a nephew of folk musician Freddie Aguilar, a campaign supporter of President Duterte.
The road rage victim was the son and namesake of Renato Ebarle Sr., who served as an undersecretary in the Office of the Presidential Chief of Staff during the Arroyo administration.
The resolution was written by Associate Justice Ramon Cruz, with Associate Justices Ricardo Rosario and Pablito Perez concurring.
The appellate court rejected Ivler’s move to discredit the eyewitnesses and his claim that he was not at the crime scene at the time of the incident. It also ruled that the convict’s attempt to cast doubt on the medico-legal report, crime scene photos and other documentary evidence “does not contribute anything to his defense.”
“Ivler’s contentions directed at assailing the credibility of the eyewitnesses ring hollow,” according to CA ruling dated Nov. 28, a copy of which was released to the media on Monday. “The attack on the eyewitnesses’ credibility must fail. It has been consistently held that in criminal cases, the evaluation of the credibility of witnesses and the task of assigning values to their testimonies are best left to the sound discretion of the trial judge.”
According to the witnesses, Ivler alighted from his blue SUV and shot Ebarle at close range after blocking the latter’s car near Barangay Valencia Hall around 11 p.m. on Nov. 18, 2009.
Ivler fled from the crime scene but the police later identified his stepfather Stephen Pollard, a British economist at Asian Development Bank, as the registered owner of the vehicle Ivler was driving.
Ivler then went into hiding before he was arrested inside the house of his mother, Marlene Aguilar, at Blue Ridge Subdivision, Quezon City, on Jan. 18, 2010, after engaging agents of the National Bureau of Investigation in a shootout.