Judge turns down pa’s plea

Due to legal technicalities, the father of 6-year-old kidnap-murder victim Ellah Joy Pique could no longer intervene in the evidentiary proceedings that are tried in court.

Regional Trial Court Judge Meinrado Paredes of Branch 13 denied the motion for partial reconsideration filed by Renante Pique who is represented by the Children’s Legal Bureau (CLB).

In his order dated May 11, Paredes said Renante filed his pleading only after the court denied a separate motion for partial reconsideration of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Central Visayas.

“Even if the court will have to assume that Renante Pique has personality to file a motion for reconsideration, the issues he raised in his motion were already passed upon and resolved by the court in the previous incidents,” the judge said.

Renante earlier requested the court to keep the confiscated items from the residence of Bella Ruby Santos.

But the court ordered the return of Santos’ Pajero, which was purportedly used in the crime, and other items taken from her residence in barangay Inayagan, Naga City: hair strands, rug, sex toys and stones.

Paredes said these items are “not properties subject of the offense” and were not mentioned in the search warrant he issued to the CIDG-7.

Santos and her British partner Ian Charles Griffiths are facing charges of kidnapping with homicide before the Cebu Provincial Prosecutors’ Office in relation to Pique’s kidnapping which occured in Minglanilla town, southern Cebu, last Feb. 8./REPORTER ADOR VINCENT S. MAYOL