Admin sanctions eyed vs fiscal in Hinolan slay case
An assistant provincial prosecutor in Aklan is in hot waters for administering the affidavit of recantation of government witnesses in the murder of broadcaster Herson “Boy” Hinolan.
The Office of the Regional State Prosecutor in Western Visayas has recommended administrative sanctions against Aklan Assistant Provincial Prosecutor Apolinar Barrios for his role in the affidavit of recantation of former state witness Peter Melgar.
“There is no question that Asst. Provincial Prosecutor Barrios committed administrative faults, described as conduct unbecoming/prejudicial to the interest of the service and (committed) misconduct,” said Assistant Regional State Prosecutor Virgilio Garcia, in a report to Senior State Prosecutor Leo Dacera II.
Dacera is the director of the Witness Protection Security and Benefits Program (WPSBP) which admitted Melgar as one its protected witness.
Hinolan's case is among those being prosecuted by the Department of Justice's Task Force 211 which was created to prosecute cases of murdered journalists.
Barrios denied doing anything irregular and illegal by administering Melgar's affidavit of recantation.
“I only performed my ministerial function as a prosecutor,” Barrios said in a telephone interview on Monday.
Barrios said he explained to Melgar that the affidavit of recantation could be used against the witness in court.
“He told me that his first affidavit was 'coerced' and he insisted on executing it despite my explanation,” said Barrios.
Melgar voluntarily reported to the police after Hinolan's killing and executed an affidavit identifying then Lezo town mayor Alfredo “Fred” Arcenio as the person who repeatedly shot the broadcaster on November 13, 2004 near a carnival in the capital town of Kalibo.
But in his affidavit of recantation subscribed by Barrios on Feb. 12, 2008, Melgar said he had mistakenly identified Arcenio as the gunman because it was dark when Hinolan was shot.
Hinolan, former station manager of dyIN Bombo Radyo in Kalibo and host of the station's morning program “Bombohanay Bigtime,” died two days after he was shot.
Arcenio who is detained at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center, has repeatedly denied involvement in the killing of Hinolan, The former mayor claimed that he was in Lezo town 7 km from Kalibo at the time of the incident.
Garcia, who was instructed by the Department of Justice to conduct a fact-finding investigation on Jan. 26 on Melgar's recantation, said Barrios was not obliged to administer the recantation of Melgar even if the former witness insisted.
“He could have refused it as a member of the (DOJ) which the affidavit will be used against,” said Garcia in a telephone interview on Monday.
Barrios also administered the two-page affidavit of recantation dated Nov. 28 of another eyewitness in the case, Niño Suñer.
But when asked about this, Barrios said he “could not remember.”
Like Melgar, Suñer had identified Arcenio as the gunman. But he later reversed his statement saying he was “bothered by (his) conscience.”
Prosecution lawyers alleged that Suñer's family was repeatedly threatened in Aklan by the Arcenio's camp, an allegation denied by the former mayor.
The RSP also recommended the filing of perjury charge against Melgar for recanting his statement.
The DOJ on Nov. 22, 2005 ordered the re-investigation of Hinolan's case after Barrios, as investigating prosecutor, issued a resolution on March 31, 2005 finding probable cause for homicide against Arcenio despite a murder complaint filed by the police and the victim's family.
On Dec. 5, 2005, Garcia, as Acting Provincial Prosecutor of Aklan, issued a resolution upgrading the charge against Arcenio from homicide to murder.