The Court of Appeals (CA) has affirmed the warrant of arrest issued against a former Manila barangay (village) chairperson for the death in 2011 of a policeman who was suspected to be a reseller of seized illegal drugs.
Affirmed was the arrest warrant issued by the Quezon City regional trial court (RTC) against Guia Gomez Castro, then chairperson of Barangay 484 in Manila, for the killing of police officer Roderick Valencia in Barangay Salvacion in Quezon City on July 13, 2011.
The CA’s decision, written by Associate Justice Jaime Fortunato A. Caringal, denied Castro’s petition challenging the RTC’s ruling.
The Valencia killing remained unresolved for eight years until Ernesto Encarnado, the driver of the motorcycle used as vehicle in the killing, surfaced and gave his extrajudicial confession that implicated Castro.
Encarnado pointed to Castro as the mastermind in the killing of Valencia who allegedly failed to remit huge amount of money from the sale of recycled illegal drugs. He also identified the gunman as a certain “Alex.”
He claimed that Castro hired him to locate a gunman for a fee of P50,000.
On the basis of Encarnado’s confession, a murder case was filed against Castro who denied the charges.
Castro asserted that she did not know Valencia and claimed that Encarnado, her neighbor, had a bad reputation having been detained for possession and trading of illegal drugs.
She also said the charge against her should be dismissed due to its long delay.
The Quezon City RTC Branch 88 found probable cause on the murder charge and issued an arrest order. The arrest order was affirmed by RTC Branch 224 when the judge of Branch 88 voluntary inhibited from the case. Castro elevated the issue before the CA.
She told the CA that Encarnado’s testimony should not have been given weight since it was issued more than eight years after the incident and that no autopsy report nor death certificate was presented to prove the actual date and the cause of Valencia’s death.
In denying Castro’s petition, the CA agreed with the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) that her arguments should best be presented during the full-blown trial of the case.
It ruled that “the trial courts’ finding of probable cause to issue a warrant of arrest against Guia is justified by the evidence presented before it.”
The CA also said: “He (Encarnado) established a longstanding relationship with Guia, citing their shared neighborhood and collaborative involvement in illegal drug activities. Crucially, he delivered a coherent and plausible narrative detailing Guia’s conspiracy to murder Valencia.”