SEARCH CALLED OFF
Divers looking for Bien Unido, Bohol Mayor Gisela Boniel lack the gear that would allow them to go into deeper water Central Visayas police want her husband, Bohol Provincial Board Member Niño Rey Boniel, to be detained here in Cebu
After 14 days of searching for the body of Bien Unido, Bohol Mayor Gisela Boniel in the waters of Lapu-Lapu City, Lapu-Lapu City Police Office (LCPO) recommended to end the operation yesterday.
Cebu City Police Station 4 Chief Jacinto Mandal, a technical diver who led the diving team, said they have already covered the area where Gisela’s body was possibly dumped.
In a report from GMA 7’s Balitang Bisdak, Mandal said the body may still be in the waters between the islands of Caubian and Olango, but their diving capability is only up to 200 feet.
“Kung naa’y advanced technology makasuhid sa kinalawman (The operation can still be continued if there is an advanced diving technology),” he said.
However, the search and retrieval team said they will wait for the instruction of the LCPO director and the Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 director.
Senior Supt. Rommel Cabagnot, director of LCPO, will submit the recommendation to PRO 7 Director Noli Taliño.
This, as the legal team of the Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 is mulling to file a motion for reconsideration against the transfer of Bohol Provincial Board (PB) Member Niño Rey Boniel’s detention to a jail in Talibon.
Chief Supt. Noli Taliño said that the police have grounds for the detention of Niño in Police Station 2, near the regional headquarters.
“He is still facing the parricide case in Lapu-Lapu for the kidnap-slay of his wife and the investigators in charge are here in the regional office so he has to be detained here,” Taliño said.
Taliño said that Niño must be secured in the headquarters considering that the case he is facing was filed by the Regional Intelligence Division and that the Bohol police was only a support writ in the legal battle.
As for the reports that Bien Unido Mayor Gisela Bendong-Boniel, Niño’s wife, is in Dubai with her Italian boyfriend, Taliño said the burden of proof is on the legal team of the accused.
Niño also subscribed his 8-page counter-affidavit as response to the accusations of parricide at the Fuente Police Station yesterday afternoon.
He faced Prosecutor Aurora Peñaflor of the Cebu City Prosecutor’s Office in the Station 2 past 1 p.m. yesterday and was represented by Atty. Gerardo Carillo.
Carillo said that the context of their counter-affidavit consisted of a denial and statement, which focused on the alleged coercion of witnesses.
“Aside from that, there was no physical or material evidence as the body was not found, the board member was negative of powder burns and there are reports that she is somewhere else and she refused to be found,” Carillo said.
Warrant
The two suspected accomplices of Boniel will remain in jail. Regional Trial Court Judge Sylva Aguirre-Paderanga yesterday ordered the temporary transfer of Wilfredo Hoylar and Restituto Magoncia from the Fuente Police Station in Cebu City to Talibon, Bohol.
The transfer came after Renato Galleon, counsel for the petitioners, asked Paderanga to transfer them to a detention closer to their families.
Judge Paderanga, of RTC Branch 16, heard yesterday the habeas corpus petition filed by Hoylar and Magoncia. They filed the petition against the regional police officers after they were placed under police custody after being told they were under investigation.
Named respondents in the petition are Provincial Police Office Director Supt. Felipe Natividad; Chief Supt. Noli Taliño Police Regional Office 7 director; and Senior Supt. Jonathan Cabal, Regional Intelligence Division 7 chief.
In yesterday’s hearing, Ehden Ferrer, counsel for the respondents, argued that the petition ought to be denied.
Ferrer said the petitioners’ detention has a legal ground since Hoylar and Magoncia signed a waiver for their continued detention pending a preliminary investigation on the parricide charges against them before the LapuLapu City Prosecutor’s Office.
But Atty. Galleon, the petitioners’ counsel, maintained that the arrest was illegal since it was made without an arrest warrant.