Canadian offers cash for missing SUV info

Yet another reward money was offered in relation to the kidnap-murder case of 6-year-old Ellah Joy Pique.

This time it’s not the province, which earlier offered P360,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of homicide suspect Bella Ruby Santos.

Santos’ lawyer Rameses Villagonzalo said a Canadian former law teacher offered a P100,000 reward for information leading to the location of a Pajero bearing plate numbers 679.

Villagonzalo was with other lawyers of Santos when they filed a petition for bail in court on her behalf yesterday.

Her lawyers declined to disclose the Canadian’s identity.

The numbers “679” were seen by three classmates of Ellah Joy on the vehicle used by two persons who fetched her from their school in Minglanilla town last Feb. 8—the last time she was seen alive.

Days later, the child was found dead below a cliff in Barili town.

The plate numbers reportedly belonged to a vehicle boarded by Norwegian Sven-Erik Berger and Karen Esdrelon.

Berger and Esdrelon were cleared after they presented evidence that they were in a Cebu City hotel at the time Ellah Joy was kidnapped.

Santos’ Pajero, which was seized by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), bore the plate number LHJ 382.

Villagonzalo showed a text message to local media purportedly from the Canadian who offered the P100,000 reward money on behalf of Bella and her British partner Ian Charles Griffiths.

“I appeal to anyone anywhere in the Philippines who knows the whereabouts of the black SUV with the partial plate number ‘679’ and can identify its owners to contact the defense team in Cebu,” the Canadian’s text message read.

Villagonzalo said the Canadian can be reached at telephone number 32-2551588 or e-mail address: [email protected].

Griffiths was recently placed on the international red list of Interpol for his alleged complicity with Santos in the kidnap and murder of Ellah Joy.

Santos and Griffiths are facing a nonbailable offense of kidnapping with homicide.

Under the 1987 Constitution, the accused has the right to bail unless he or she is charged with a capital offense where evidence of guilt is “strong.”

Santos’ lawyers believed Santos should be allowed to post bail, saying the evidence against them are weak.

Joan Suarez-Pabriaga of the Children’s Legal Bureau (CLB) said the motion for bail filed by the defense is “premature” since the prosecution has yet to present their evidence in court.

The bureau is representing the victim’s family in the case.

In their petition, the lawyers for Santos said no one saw who murdered the victim.

They also said the police seized the wrong Pajero vehicle, which bore a different license plate number than one spotted by Ellah Joy’s classmates.

The lawyers said the prosecution’s witnesses are just a second set of persons who were asked to testify following the dismissal of the charges against Berger and Esdrelon.

They also said the police suppressed the release of DNA results on bloodstains taken from the belongings of Santos.

They added that the cartographic sketches didn’t match the facial and physical description of Santos and Griffiths.

Defense lawyers also asked the court to conduct “marathon hearings” or trial at least twice or thrice a week to expedite resolution of the charges.

Regional Trial Court Judge Ester Veloso of Branch 6 has yet to resolve the pleadings.

Santos was arrested by an agent of the National Bureau of Investigation in Central Visayas (NBI-7) inside SM Megamall in Mandaluyong Manila last Oct. 7.