The euphoria over the early solution to the murder of broadcaster Dindo Generoso took a plunge last week after the Prosecutor investigating the charges, filed by the police against one of the suspects, junked the complaint for lacking in substance.
Teddy Reyes Salaw, the alleged driver of the pickup truck which the gunman rode while waiting for the broadcaster, walked free after the police could not submit evidence proving that he was indeed the driver at that particular time.
The Prosecutor found that the charge against Salaw are all based on circumstantial evidence — there was no direct testimony that Salaw was the driver of the vehicle on that fateful Nov. 7 morning, and that there was no instance in the CCTV footages that his face was seen.
Even though the police produced an exchange of cellphone messages between the alleged driver and the alleged gunman, including the alleged admission by Salaw during interrogation that he was the driver, the Prosecutor ruled that such admission is inadmissible in court because Salaw did not have a lawyer with him.
It is evident that our police investigators in this case fumbled in their homework by submitting a case that lacks legal foothold.
It could be that they do not have adequate legal background or they were so convinced they solved the case, that they skipped some rules of evidence.
Believing someone had a hand in the murder is one thing. Proving it is another.
If the PNP does not have a lawyer in their office, perhaps the City, at least, can hire a lawyer to be stationed at the Dumaguete Police Station to attend to serious matters like this.
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