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Pastor Leonardo Jastiva stepped out of jail yesterday afternoon shortly after the court ordered his release.
His children and several church members happily accompanied him home to Talisay City.
The Seventh Day Adventist pastor still has to answer a charge of parricide filed against him for the death of his wife.
But yesterday, because of legal lapses by Cebu City police who arrested the church leader when the victim's body was found over a week after her disappearance, the police were admonished about the “improper” arrest made without a warrant.
Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Gabriel Ingles of Branch 58 granted a petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed by the pastor’s daughter and ordered Jastiva’s release.
The judge said police officers failed to justify the warrantless arrest as a hot-pursuit operation.
In a hearing in the morning, police officers gave sometimes conflicting explanations about when the “crime” occurred – was it Feb. 10 when the pastor reported his wife was kidnapped? Or on Feb. 18, when the woman's body was found abandoned in the mountain barangay of Tabunan in Cebu City?
“Even if it may be conceded that based on what the respondent (Police Senior Inspector Mario Monilar) knew he had probable cause to believe that Jastiva committed parricide, this court fails to see how the lapse of about five to seven days between the commission of the crime and the arrest, can satisfy the requisite 'has just been committed',” Ingles said.
An arrest can be made without a warrant based on three situations: when a crime is being committed in one's presence, has just been committed, or is about to be committed.
For police to invoke a hot-pursuit operation, they have to establish when the crime was committed, not when it was discovered, as well as the time the suspect was placed under arrest.
Senior Inspector Monilar, homicide chief of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), said the pastor was arrested on Thursday, Feb. 19 and detained without a court order.
He invoked a hot-pursuit arrest under section 5 (b) of Rule 113 of the Rules of Court which states that an arrest without warrant can be made by a peace officer or private citizen “when an offense has just been committed and he has probable cause to believe based on personal knowledge of facts or circumstances that the person to be arrested has committed it.”
His lawyer Troy Cayanan said the crime of parricide should be considered as “having been committed” on Feb. 18, when police discovered the victim's body in a vacant lot in the mountain barangay of Tabunan.
But a police autopsy showed the woman may have been killed four to six days before it was discovered.
Judith Jastiva was reported by her husband as having been kidnapped by car-riding men who stopped the couple while they were riding through P. Abella Street, Cebu City on a motorbike.
“Following such line of argument would allow a hot pursuit arrest today even for a crime committed a long time ago because the body was only discovered today,” the court said in its order.
Judge Ingles, being the judge on duty, presided over the special court proceeding on the petition for a writ of habeas corpus.
The court room was full, mostly with policemen, when the hearing started at 10 a.m.
Jastiva, who has denied any role in his wife's death, sat on a bench with his four children. He embraced his 10-year-old son, the youngest child, throughout the proceeding.
At least 10 members of the International Missionary Society of the Seventh Day Adventist sat behind the pastor.
A writ of habeas corpus is a legal remedy in which a person can seek relief from unlawful detention. The writ has historically been an important instrument for the safeguarding of individual freedom against arbitrary state action.
Jastiva spent two nights in jail.
After yesterday's hearing, Jastiva shed tears while his lawyer Agueda Tiu-Monteclar tried to console him.
The pastor, who did not speak throughout the proceeding, was escorted by police back to the police headquarters to await the court's order. The release order arrived past 2 p.m.
A preliminary investigation on the parricide charge will be conducted by Assistant City Prosecutor Liceria Lofranco-Rabillas.
Defense lawyer Tiu-Monteclar told Cebu Daily News her client's counter-affidavit will be submitted next week after discussion with co-counsels.
She said the pastor thanked her upon his release but “Wa pa mi nag-istorya sa details sa kaso. (We have yet to discuss about the details of the case),” she said.
She said Jastiva is already a free man, but the pastor needs to ask permission from his lawyers if wants to travel outside Cebu.
Yesterday's hearing was also attended by CCPO Director Senior Supt. Patrocinio Comendador Jr.; Senior Inspector George Ylanan, chief of the Intelligence and Detective Management Branch of CCPO; Jastiva's lawyers Tiu-Monteclar, Luzmindo Besario, and Fritz Quinanol and lawyer Troy Cayanan and Monilar representing the CCPO.
The police were first asked to explain the basis of their warrantless arrest.
Asked when the crime was committed, Monilar said Feb. 10, the day the pastor told police his wife was dead.
To this Ingles remarked: “You said the crime was committed on February 10. Hhow can you say that the crime has just been committed (when you arrested him only on February 19?),” Ingles asked.
At this point, Senior Supt. Comendador who was sitting behind Monilar suddenly stood up to answer.
“I will clarify it your honor. It's not yet determine when the crime was committed,” he said.
Comendador said Monilar's February 10 assumption was based on Jastiva's statement.
The judge remarked, ““You are not sure when the crime was committed. How can you say that the crime 'has just been committed'?”
With this, the judge advised the police not to “risk or compromise” the case by insisting on a warrantless arrest.
He asked the police to prove their contentions by undergoing a preliminary investigation in the prosecutor’s office. Later on, when the case is filed in court, the judge can be asked to issue a warrant of arrest.
Leonardo, 42, is the president of the International Missionary Society of the Seventh Day Adventist Church.
He said his wife was kidnapped the evening of Monday, Feb. 9 by men on board a blue Mitsubishi Lancer sedan. The incident happened a day after the couple celebrated their 21st wedding anniversary.
From the start, police said they doubted the pastor's story because he refused to sign a formal complaint.
Later, the pastor forwarded police officers text messages he said were sent by the kidnappers, indicating where Judith's body could be found.
Police arrested Jastiva Thursday after discovering that one of his cellphones had the same number as the sender of the text messages.
The pastor said he just got “confused” and that the original text messages were just forwarded from another phone he owned. He offered to take a lie-detector test to prove his innocence.
