ENZO PASTOR: His family’s painful quest remains stuck on the long road to justice more than a year after his murder. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
A MILLION-PESO reward awaits anyone who could provide information leading to the arrest of the two principal accused in the Ferdinand “Enzo” Pastor murder case.
The parents of the slain international racing champion have offered a bounty of P1 million for tipsters who could help the police find his widow Dalia Guerrero-Pastor and her alleged lover, businessman Domingo “Sandy” de Guzman.
“My friends tell me the two have been spotted. Why aren’t they being picked up?” Enzo’s mother Remy said in an interview on Friday. “The arrest warrants were issued on Aug. 4 and announced by the judge on Aug. 17. Until now, they haven’t been served.”
Dalia is accused of conspiring with De Guzman and is facing a parricide case at the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 85.
De Guzman and the alleged gunman he hired, Edgar Angel, are facing murder charges in the same court for the ambush that killed Pastor and wounded his assistant Paolo Salazar at a Quezon City intersection on the night of June 12, 2014.
De Guzman was earlier arrested for illegal possession of firearms. He was able to post bail for that case in September last year.
“We’d like to announce that we have a P1-million reward,” Enzo’s father Tomas told the media in Quezon City, saying the offer was “in line with the bounty previously contributed” by Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.
Duterte, a close friend of Enzo’s, dangled P1 million for the arrest of the suspects weeks after the killing. Angel was arrested on Aug. 23, 2014, and Duterte handed over the reward money for the informant through then Philippine National Police chief Director General Alan Purisima during a flag ceremony in Camp Crame on Nov. 10.
In an interview, Enzo’s mother Remy said close friends of the Pastor family helped raise the funds for the “Justice for Enzo Foundation,” allotting P500,000 each for Dalia Pastor and De Guzman.
Remy Pastor said Dalia should “repent” and face the court. “It’s up to the lawyer to protect her but she has to surface. Why should she surface only when proven not guilty? How could she be proven not guilty when she hasn’t been arraigned.”
She was referring to an earlier statement by Dalia’s lawyer Ruy Rondain, who in a hearing last week filed an entry of appearance bearing Dalia’s signature.
The private prosecutors then disputed the authenticity of the document. “There is doubt whether (Dalia) is still in the Philippines or within the jurisdiction of the court. There is a warrant of arrest against her but she hasn’t appeared in court,” lawyer Leonardo Mendoza II told reporters after the hearing.
“Now here’s a written document signed by Dalia (and) we do not know how and where it was signed,” Mendoza said.
Rondain said he was taking personal offense at the insinuation that the signature was not authentic. “The address on record is somewhere in Magallanes (in Makati City),” Rondain told reporters. He maintained, however, that he didn’t have to reveal Dalia’s whereabouts.
The prosecutors asked the opposing counsel to disclose Dalia’s current address. The court gave both panels 10 days to file their respective comments. -Erika Sauler
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