CEBU -- Lawyer Jiecel Tiu wants the court to suspend proceedings in the slight physical injuries against Pearl Ungab, while her bid to pursue a more serious case against the vice mayor’s wife is being reviewed.
Chev Maglasang, one of Tiu’s lawyers, asked the Municipal Trial Court in Cities on Wednesday to suspend the proceedings while their motion for reconsideration has yet to be resolved.
Tiu’s camp is asking Assistant Cebu City Prosecutor Liceria Rabillas to review her recommendation to file a criminal case of slight physical injuries against Pearl, wife of Ronda Vice Mayor Jonnah John Ungab.
Tiu’s original complaint against Ungab was for frustrated murder.
Exactly one week ago, Mrs. Ungab allegedly rammed, again and again, Tiu’s red Toyota Vios sedan with a Nissan Navara pick-up truck. In her complaint, Tiu said that Pearl also smashed the side and a window of her car with a baseball bat, the same one she used to strike Tiu in the head and other parts of her body.
In her three-page disposition released last Tuesday, Assistant City Prosecutor Liceria Rabillas wrote that she found no proof that Mrs. Ungab intended to kill Atty. Tiu.
“Though a baseball bat may be considered as a weapon, yet the manner it was used by the respondent (Pearl) in assaulting the complainant (Tiu) would readily show that she does not have the intention to kill the complainant,” Rabillas wrote.
Had Pearl intended to kill Tiu, Rabillas said, she could have used a gun or another weapon “to ensure that the latter will be dead or she could have smashed the rammed the Vios (Tiu’s car) with her pick-up truck.”
Meanwhile, Southwestern University (SWU), where the vice mayor teaches law, issued a statement that it has not received any complaint against Ungab in relation to his job as a part-time instructor.
“Should there be any complaint against faculty of SWU, or any of its colleges, rest assured that the SWU administration will certainly act on it,” said Inocencio dela Cerna, counsel for SWU.
Atty. Ungab has taken a leave of absence from the SWU College of Law after the controversy broke out last week.
In recent days, a woman has been claiming on Facebook that the vice mayor fathered her young son. She dropped hints about a case she has filed against him.
However, she has since deleted some of those posts and declined a request for an interview.
For her part, Tiu, 31, filed the complaint last February 27 accusing Pearl, 41, of frustrated murder after the encounter in Barangay Cogon-Ramos in the late afternoon of February 26.
Rabillas, in a separate interview, said the City Prosecutor’s Office has not yet received Tiu’s motion for reconsideration.
“But they (Tiu’s camp) still have remedies. They can go to the Department of Justice and file a petition for review,” said Rabillas.
She denied insinuations by Tiu’s other lawyer, Rex Fernandez, that she was biased in resolving the complaint against Mrs. Ungab.
“It’s not just my decision. It’s the stand of the entire office because my finding was approved by the city prosecutor,” said Rabillas.
In her recommendation, the prosecutor said that the extent of Tiu’s injuries “coupled with the manner the assault was carried out” do not indicate treachery or premeditation, which would be required in a frustrated murder case.
She also wrote that the medico-legal certificate Tiu submitted did not state how long she needed medical attention as a result of her injuries.
Rabillas quoted a Supreme Court decision that said, “The crime is also slight physical injuries if there is n proof as to the period of the offended party’s incapacity for labor or of the required medical attendance.” (Sun.Star Cebu)
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