Pilapil attends probe; 3 suspects a no-show

Actress and former beauty queen Pilar Pilapil attended Tuesday’s preliminary investigation into the abduction and frustrated murder charges she filed against three people at the Antipolo City Prosecutors’ Office.

The probe was the fourth clarificatory hearing held since charges were filed against Rosel Jacosalem Peñas, the sister-in-law of Pilapil’s husband, and two still unidentified men who stabbed the actress repeatedly and then left her for dead at the foot of a grassy hill in Antipolo on April 14.

Pilapil arrived at around 2 p.m. at the prosecutor’s office with escorts from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group of the Philippine National Police.

However, she waved off questions from the media and merely said she had “a lot of things to do” before she left the Antipolo Hall of Justice where the preliminary investigation was held.

Reporters were not allowed to cover the proceedings.

Assistant Prosecutor Edgar Namia, meanwhile, said their investigation would end by next week with or without Peñas and her two alleged cohorts making an appearance in court.

Peñas is the subject of a manhunt.

“We will not be held hostage by her nonappearance. We will still be submitting the case for resolution after the last hearing next Tuesday,” Namia told the Inquirer as he added that he hoped that Peñas would attend the last hearing for her to answer all the allegations against her.

Peñas was the companion of Pilapil when two armed men commandeered the car they were riding in in Marikina City. The two men ordered Peñas, who was driving, to go to Antipolo City where they stabbed Pilapil repeatedly and dumped her at the foot of a hill.

Peñas has yet to surface after the attack on Pilapil. She was initially believed to be a victim but the police declared her a suspect after finding inconsistencies in her travel and employment records.