Cotabato City Mayor Japal Guiani, Jr. has asked Justice Secretary Leila de Lima to allow the transfer of venue for the prosecution of kidnapping cases here.
Guiani told a news conference Monday that he personally asked de Lima to help him work out the transfer of venue for litigation to ensure efficient prosecution of kidnapping suspects.
Guiani said that a big number of high-profile kidnapping cases failed to prosper because of security problems faced by complainants, witnesses and prosecutors as they pursued legal action against the suspects.
There was no mention of specific place to hold the court hearing.
Guiani made the announcement hours after kidnap victim Jinky Lim Yap, 38, was freed by her captors in Datu Piang, Maguindanao.
Yap, owner of a mini-grocery store, was seized around 6:50 p.m. on April 1 while she was manning her store along Sinsuat Avenue, Cotabato City.
The family paid an undetermined amount of ransom to secure her release. The suspects earlier demanded a P15-million ransom but lowered it to P500,000.
Another kidnap victim, Eulogio Adin Yu, owner of Yu Kian Gian Hardware, remains in captivity since January 8.
Guiani said the DOJ has assigned Fiscal Al Calica as special prosecutor for high-profile kidnapping cases but local officials still want the immediate transfer of the venue for the litigation of existing cases.
Preceding Yap's kidnapping was the ambush of Maguindanao’s provincial prosecutor Akil Balt by suspected guns-for-hire in an attack investigators said was work related.
Balt died in a hospital in Cagayan de Oro City days after the ambush due to serious gunshot wounds in his nape and body.
“We in the city government of Cotabato are hoping the DOJ and the judiciary can help us address this need,†Guiani said.
He said witnesses and survivors of kidnapping cases refuse to testify for the prosecution of cases if the litigation is held in the city. (PNA)
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