Sun.Star Cebu

SISTER ACT:

- PHOTO BY ALAN TANGCAWAN

Mikay Bendong (in white shirt), sister of Bien Unido Mayor Gisela Boniel, is helped into a pumpboat carrying divers who continue to search for the missing body. She is apprised of the situation.

The legal counsel of Bohol Provincial Board (PB) Member Niño Rey Boniel will hire the services of another DNA testing center after the result from Camp Crame headquarte­rs revealed that blood samples from the motorized banca that was allegedly used to carry Mayor Gisela Boniel from Bien Unido to Mactan last June 7 matched the DNA of her mother.

Atty. Inocencio dela Cerna, Niño’s lawyer, said that the motorized banca was used twice on separate occasions by two parties.

“The first to use it were students while the second were some fishermen. With that, we will use an independen­t party to do a retest on the specimen,” he said.

Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 Director Noli Taliño said that the official document of the ttest will be revealed in court.

“Ang resulta ang magso-solidify sa kaso na isinampa natin laban kay board member. This is just one of the evidence against him that he rally killed the mayor,” Taliño said.

The DNA result was approved by Chief Insp. Lorna Santos, chief of the DNA analysis branch of the crime laboratory in Camp Crame.

Taliño said that they welcome the proposal of PB Member Bon- iel’s lawyer, but it is up to the court to allow it. “They can ask the questions, but we will show the results in the proper forum and that is the court,” he added.

Meanwhile, a newly-appointed female judge will try the parricide case against PB Member Boniel. The case was assigned to the sala of Regional Trial Court Branch 57 Judge Anna Lou Cavada last July 11.

Cavaada, former Cebu City assistant prosecutor, will also hear the murder case against two Boniel’s suspected cohorts—boatman Reolito “Etad” Boniel and driver Randel Lupas. The other suspected cohorts—Wilfredo Hoylar and Restituto Magoncia Jr.—were also charged with murder.

Cavada was appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte along with 22 Cebuano lawyers to the judiciary last April .

Niño was tagged as the prime suspect in the abduct-slay of his wife Gisela after his cousin Reolito admitted to the police that he saw the PB member shoot the mayor before throwing her body into the waters off Bohol and Mactan in Cebu.

Niño, in his counter-affidavit, said that Gisela might be alive and only in hiding ./

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