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DOJ clears Dumaluan
    

Former Panglao mayor Dr. Doloreich Dumaluan have nothing but praises for the swift delivery of justice on what had become the most publicized criminal case in the province.

Nine months after Dr. Dumaluan was implicated as mastermind in the brutal killing of 16-year old Vivian Dumaluan sometime in April 2004, the Department of Justice (DOJ) dismissed a petition for review on the decision of the Provincial Prosecutor that cleared the former mayor of the rape with homicide case.

Vivian was working as a househelp of the former mayor's brother Teofredo "Pingmay" Dumaluan who was previously charged for the crime on December 28, 2007.

"With the DOJ ruling, I really hope the persecution against former mayor Dumaluan and his family through machinations and sheer inventions using convicts as witnesses is over," the respondent's lead counsel Atty. Roland Inting said.

THE CHARGES

On April 29, 2004, the lifeless body of Vivian was found near the Bagobo Beach Resort in Bolod, Panglao.

A post mortem examination of the teenage victim's body showed she was raped before she was killed.

Police investigation led to the filing of a complaint for rape with homicide two months later against one Narciso Maghamil. This complaint was based primarily on the affidavit of witness George Galo.

About three years later on December 28, 2007, a second complaint was filed against Pingmay, this time for conspiracy to commit rape with homicide.

The complaint against Pingmay was based on a second affidavit executed by Galo on August 13, 2007.
         

The Office of the Provincial Prosecutor conducted preliminary investigation on the second case but before the prosecution could issue a resolution, the complainant and police investigator SPO2 Dominie Ragusta filed on March 7, 2008 a motion to defer resolution in order for additional evidence which includes an affidavit of Elizabeth Galo, wife of George, and a sworn statement by one Alex Dasco dated March 5, 2008.

However, before the prosecution could resolve the motion, a third complaint was filed charging former mayor Dumaluan and Romeo Lapinig as additional respondents having conspired with the two other earlier-accused.

A second affidavit of Dasco, executed nine days after the first sworn statement, tagged Dr. Dumaluan as the mastermind of the gruesome crime.

The provincial prosecutor consolidated the cases and created a panel of four prosecutors to conduct a joint preliminary investigation.

On July 2, 2008, the panel of prosecutors dismissed the complaint for rape with homicide against the Dumaluan brothers and Lapinig. The same resolution found probable cause against Dasco, one of the key witnesses, based on his extrajudicial confession that he held the hands of Vivian while she was repeatedly raped and later killed.

The complainants filed a motion for reconsideration at the Provincial Prosecutor but even before the motion was resolved, a petition for review was also filed by the complainants at the DOJ.

Although the filing of the petition for review was premature, the DOJ resolved the same based on its merits.

The DOJ resolution, signed by justice Sec. Raul Gonzales, said it found "no error to warrant the modification or reversal" of the resolution of the panel of prosecutors.

The DOJ likewise found inconsistencies in the testimonies of Galo "rendering his allegations unworthy of faith and credence".

Dasco's credibility as a witness was found by the DOJ as "devoid of any credibility".

Dasco's allegation that the former mayor involved him in the planning and participation of the crime when the Dumaluan brothers knew him for only about two weeks "cannot also be accorded with credibility", the DOJ resolution said.

"Moreover, the settled jurisprudence is that conspiracy must be established, as clearly as the commission of the crime itself. Dasco's allegation of conspiracy in the instant cases falls short of the required degree of proof."

The resolution also noted that Dasco failed to present evidence showing that the former mayor employed him as a driver in April 2004.

"Finally, as borne out by the record, witnesses Galo and Dasco are convicts of crimes involving moral turpitude. Such circumstances militates against their credibility as witnesses," the ruling concluded.

Atty. Inting said that Dumaluan and counsels are "contemplating on filing appropriate charges against those who orchestrated the sham accusations, including the lawyers, if evidence warrant."

Meanwhile, Atty. Aleck Francis Lim, another counsel for Dumaluan, also asked for the police to produce Dasco as the witness was under their custody.

He said the warrant for the arrest of Dasco, the accuser who is now the accused, should be issued by the court with the filing of charges against him.

   
    
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