CA junks Enzo Pastor wife’s plea to stop her arrest

Enzo Pastor with wife Dalia. (Photo: Enzo Pastor/Facebook)

MANILA — The Court of Appeals (CA) has denied the petition filed by Dalia Guerrero-Pastor, the wife of slain international racing champ Enzo Pastor, to stop the implementation of an arrest warrant against her issued by Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) last March 2015.

In a 10-page resolution dated Sept. 14, 2017 penned by Associate Justice Maria Elisa Sempio Diy, and concurred in by Associate Justices Celia Librea-Leagogo and Florito Macalino, the CA’s Seventh Division found no basis to grant Dalia’s application for the issuance of a temporary restraining order and/or a writ of preliminary injunction enjoining her arrest in connection with the parricide case filed against her for the death of her husband.

The Quezon City RTC earlier ordered Dalia’s arrest over the killing of her husband in June 2014.

She was charged with parricide for allegedly conniving with businessman Domingo “Sandy” de Guzman to kill Enzo on June 12, 2014.

“In the case before us, Dalia failed to satisfy all the requisites necessary for the issuance of injunctive relief. Dalia failed to establish that she has a clear and unmistakable legal right which ought to be protected. She also failed to persuade us that there is extreme urgency for the relief,” the resolution read.

The CA did not give credence to Dalia’s claim that issuance of the arrest order against her was not supported by the facts and by the law.

The CA pointed out that Dalia’s allegations are yet to be determined considering that the same are intertwined with the main issues raised by her in her petition.

“We cannot make any pronouncement that would preempt the merits of the main case. The prevailing rule is that courts should avoid issuing a writ of preliminary injunction that would in effect dispose of the main case without trial,” the CA ruled.

Guerrero has been in hiding since the case was filed with the DOJ.

In a resolution released in February 2015, the DOJ recommended the filing of parricide against Guerrero and the filing of murder charges against de Guzman.

Earlier, the DOJ also found probable cause to indict former policeman Edgar Angel for murder despite recanting his previous statements implicating both Dahlia and de Guzman as masterminds in the killing of Pastor.

The DOJ held that that although there is no direct evidence pointing to the respondents as direct participants in Pastor’s killing, “there is interlocking circumstantial evidence that would point to their complicity in the commission of the crime.”

The justice department also noted that despite Angel’s retraction, the case against Dalia remains strong with the execution of an affidavit by Chona Domen, housemaid of the Pastors, detailing what she knows about the alleged illicit affair of Dalia and de Guzman.

In her petition, Dalia insisted that Regional Trial Court of Quezon City Branch 91 Presiding Judge Luisito Cortez gravely abused his discretion in holding that probable cause exits despite absence of evidence against her.

Aside from the two statements of the alleged gunman, Angel, Guerrero said there is no other evidence that would show that she conspired with the latter and his alleged lover De Guzman in killing Pastor.

De Guzman has also been charged with murder in connection with Pastor’s death.

Dalia’s camp noted that Angel had already retracted his two statements after admitting that he was tortured and coerced into signing them.

Unless the trial is enjoined, Dalia said she would be deprived of her constitutional right to liberty without due process and right to a fair preliminary investigation.

Enzo was killed in June 2014 at the corner of Congressional and Visayas Avenue in Quezon City while on his way to a competition in Pampanga. He sustained gunshot wounds in the head, neck, and arms.