The Supreme Court (SC) has reinstated the parricide case against Dalia Guerrero Pastor as co-conspirator in the 2014 killing of her husband Ferdinand “Enzo” Pastor, an award-winning car racer.
With the reinstatement of the case, the SC reversed the Feb. 21, 2020 ruling of the Court of Appeals (CA) which dismissed the parricide case against Dalia.
The SC also reinstated the warrant of arrest and hold departure orders issued on March 24, 2015 by the Quezon City regional trial court (RTC) against Dalia.
The SC decision, written by Associate Justice Amy C. Lazaro-Javier, granted the petition filed by Tomas Pastor, the father of Enzo.
A summary of the decision released by the SC’s Public Information Office (PIO) stated that in 2014, Enzo was driving a truck to Clark, Pampanga, together with his mechanic, Paolo Salazar.
It said that after the truck came to a stop at the intersection of Visayas Avenue and Congressional Avenue in Quezon City, a man suddenly approached the driver’s side of the truck and fired at Enzo, killing him.
The SC-PIO said that the prosecution charged Police Officer II (PO2) Edgar Angel, as the gunman, and Domingo De Guzman III and Dalia as masterminds in Enzo’s killing.
PO2 Angel and De Guzman were arrested, while Dalia remained at large.
The RTC issued arrest and hold departure orders against Dalia who elevated the issues before the CA which dismissed the parricide case for lack of probable cause.
In dismissing the case, the CA ruled that PO2 Angel failed to identify Dalia as the mastermind of the plot to kill her husband.
The CA also held that even if Dalia knew the agreement between PO2 Angel and De Guzman, this was not enough to prove that she conspired with them.
Reversing the CA, the SC-PIO said the High Court held: “A finding of probable cause needs only evidence showing that, more likely than not, a crime has been committed by the suspects. It does not require evidence of guilt beyond reasonable doubt.”
It said that in the case of Dalia, “the Supreme Court found that there was sufficient evidence that identifies Dalia as a co-conspirator and her participation in Enzo’s killing.”
“Enzo and Dalia’s house help claimed to have witnessed Dalia’s affair with De Guzman. PO2 Angel claimed De Guzman showed him a picture of Dalia with bruises and asked him to kill Enzo for beating up Dalia,” it said quoting from the decision.
“Another witness, Alvin Nidua, a self-proclaimed gun-for-hire, claimed he met with Dalia and De Guzman, who both offered him P200,000 to kill Enzo, but Nidua declined because the amount was too low,” it said.
It also said that Salazar, who was with Enzo on the truck on the way to Clark, Pampanga, testified that Dalia called Enzo multiple times to track their location.
Thus, the SC-PIO said that “the Court found that all these show Dalia had an active hand in planning Enzo’s ambush.”
It said the SC stressed that “the finding of probable cause against an accused does not violate his or her right to be presumed innocent.”