Bonifacio ‘Totoy’ Baro, the former personal driver of actress Rhian Ramos, has filed a motion for reconsideration and a motion for inhibition at the Makati Prosecutor’s Office after the dismissal of the complaints he filed against his former employer and actress-beauty queens Michelle Dee and Samantha Panlilio.
The Makati prosecutors, in a joint resolution dated Sept. 1, dismissed Baro’s complaint for slight illegal detention, slight physical injuries, maltreatment, and unlawful arrest against the three celebrities, along with Chester Ian Galicia and Felipe Brabante III, due to ‘insufficiency of evidence.’
In a phone interview with the INQUIRER, Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) President Arsenio ‘Boy’ Evangelista said that they filed the motion for reconsideration and inhibition on Tuesday morning, Sept 22.
Based on the motion, VACC lawyer Argel Joseph Cabatbat entered as counsel for Baro and signed the complainant’s appeal.
Baro, through his counsel, pointed out in the motion for reconsideration that the investigating prosecutor supposedly committed ‘grave error’ and showed ‘partiality’ by stating they found no prima facie evidence for the complaint.
The complainant’s camp noted that the prosecutor allegedly ignored CCTV footage authenticated by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), testimony from a witness, and even Dee’s statement recorded in a blotter report, which said that Totoy ‘made an attempt on his escape,’ and after managing to go out, ‘he was caught and brought back to my unit.’
The camp zeroed in on Dee’s statement, noting that, ‘If [Totoy] was free to leave, why did he have to ‘escape’? And when he got out, why was he ‘caught and brought back’ to the unit?’
Having said this, the former driver moved for the ‘voluntary inhibition’ of Senior Assistant City Prosecutor Mikhail Maverick P. Tumacder, Division Chief Melvin A. Matti, and City Prosecutor Dindo G. Venturanza from further participating in the proceedings and resolving his motion for reconsideration.
‘A cursory reading of the assailed Joint Resolution reveals that the investigating prosecutor abandoned the role of a fair and objective minister of justice,’ the motion also read.
The INQUIRER reached out to Dee’s counsel, Atty. Maggie Abraham-Garduque, to which she responded that they have not yet received a copy of the motion for reconsideration.
‘We will get a copy of it and file our comment opposition thereto,’ the lawyer told the INQUIRER.
Meanwhile, the VACC said in a statement that ‘justice’ must be served to everyone, regardless of the names involved.
‘Hindi namin hinihingi na agad paniwalaan si Totoy. Hindi rin namin hinihingi na agad husgahan ang mga respondents. Ang hinihingi namin ay huwag balewalain ang ebidensya,’ the VACC said.
(We are not asking to immediately believe Totoy. We are also not asking to immediately judge the respondents. What we are asking is not to ignore the evidence.)