THE Department of Justice has dismissed the motion for reconsideration of its resolution junking the murder complaint filed against Calabarzon cops in the 2021 “Bloody Sunday” killing of labor leader Emmanuel “Manny” Asuncion.
In the same ruling dated July 3, 2023, the panel of prosecutors also junked the motion for inhibition filed by Asuncion’s widow, Liezl, against Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Rodan Parrocha.
In junking the motion, the prosecution panel said Asuncion’s wife failed to present new evidence to warrant a reversal of its resolution dated January 25 this year dismissing the case against 17 police officers.
“It appears that these documents were already available and in existence at the time of the filing of the complaint, hence, it is suspicious why they were not submitted to the Panel as part of the complainant’s evidence. This belated submission at this stage of the proceedings has no material bearing anymore,” the DOJ said.
As to the call for Parrocha’s inhibition, the panel said it has no basis, adding that Asuncion’s widow failed to demonstrate the alleged bias of the prosecutor.
Asuncion was one of the nine human rights activists killed by the police in a series of raids in Calabarzon on March 6, 2021 dubbed as “Bloody Sunday.”
On January 18 this year, the DOJ panel headed by Parrocha dismissed the complaint due to lack of probable cause against the 17 cops assigned at the Rizal and Laguna provincial police offices.
The DOJ said Asuncion’s widow was not able to establish the identity of the respondent policemen as they were wearing ski masks and only their eyes were visible and was not able to see who shot her husband dead as she was already outside the house when she heard gunshots.
There was no eyewitness to the killing of Asuncion, the DOJ added, and there was nothing that directly incriminates the respondent cops in the killing.
In her motion for reconsideration, Asuncion’s widow said the policemen killed her husband, adding that all the elements of murder, namely, treachery, abuse of superior strength and evident premeditation, were present in the case.
She said the policemen also conspired with each other in carrying out her husband’s killing.
Last month, the DOJ also junked a similar plea assailing the resolution dismissing the murder complaints against the cops who killed activist-couple Ariel and Ana Mariz Lemita-Evangelista.
The Evangelista couple were among the slain activists in the “Bloody Sunday” operation.
