Warrants out for couple in maid’s torture

A Quezon City judge has ordered the arrest without bail of a couple accused of maltreating their housemaid until she went blind.

At the same time, Judge Germano Francisco Legaspi of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 77 scheduled on Friday a hearing for the issuance of a hold departure order against Reynold and Annaliza Marzan as sought by Assistant City Prosecutor Ulric Badiola.

“As the necessary consequence of the pending cases filed against the herein accused, they should not be allowed to travel abroad pending the hearing of these cases for the possibility to [escape] from their responsibilities is not remote. The filing of these cases operate as a valid restriction on their right to travel,” Badiola said.

He added that the issuance of a hold departure order would “ensure the accused’s  presence at all stages of the hearing in this case and prevent them from [escaping] from their liabilities.”

Probable cause

In an order dated Aug. 23, Legaspi said he found probable cause against the Marzans for the charge of serious illegal detention filed against them by their former housemaid, Bonita Baran.

According to Baran, the couple conspired to lock her up inside their house on Visayas Avenue, Quezon City, from June 2009 to May this year.

With the help of the Public Attorney’s Office, Baran initially filed a complaint of two counts of attempted homicide, seven counts of serious physical injuries and serious illegal detention against the Marzans.

The other charges, however, were dismissed by the Quezon City Assistant Prosecutor Ronald Torrijos for lack of evidence.

Baran claimed that Annaliza, with her husband as an accessory, abused and tortured her until she lost her eyesight. The other day, a Senate committee also threatened to arrest the couple for their repeated failure to attend a legislative hearing on the charges against them.

The Marzans’ lawyer, Jess Fernandez, said that Annaliza was in a hospital for an unspecified illness although he admitted that he did not know what hospital she had been taken to or who her doctor was.