Judge Irineo Pangilinan of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 58 here said he received the complaints at about 10 a.m. Wednesday.
During the supposed arraignment of SPO4 Ricky Sta. Isabel and SPO4 Roy Villegas yesterday afternoon, the judge said he had yet to read the new complaints as he was already loaded with hearings on eight cases and a wedding when the complaints were received by his sala.
The identities of the suspects in the new cases still had to be disclosed, but it is expected that the respondents would include those already named by state prosecutors in the kidnap and murder of the Korean national.
Pangilinan also ordered the release of Ramon Yalung, one of the initial suspects in the kidnap and murder of the Korean businessman. This, after state prosecutors, in a re-investigation of Jee’s case, excluded Yalung and other persons, including three personnel of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) among those initially implicated in the case.
Pangilinan noted that the lawyers of both Sta. Isabel and Villegas did not object to the exclusion of Yalung in the kidnap-murder case, prompting him to order the immediately release of Yalung from detention at the Angeles City jail.
Pangilinan also reset the arraignment of Sta. Isabel, after his co-accused SPO4 Roy Villegas failed to show up in court yesterday. He reset the arraignment to May 31 after noting that the PNP custodial center where Villegas was detained “could not escort him because of lack of subpoena.”
State prosecutors who were at the court said they expected that the other suspects in the case of the Korean businessman would also show up for arraignment on May 31, after the Department of Justice included their names as suspects in the reinvestigation that Pangilinan had earlier ordered.
Also present at the court were the wife of Jee, and other Korean friends, including an official from the South Korean embassy who asked not to be named but said that he was at the court only to observe.
