Key witness in Ruby Rose murder case recants testimony

(Updated 7:16 p.m.) The key witness in the killing of Ruby Rose Barrameda, sister of former beauty queen and actress Rochelle Barrameda, has withdrawn his testimony from a Malabon court. In a phone interview with GMA News Online, Malabon Regional Trial Court Branch 170 clerk Zeny Salonga said that Manuel Montero submitted the four-page notice of withdrawal on Tuesday. "Sinabi niya na pawang kasinungalingan 'yung mga sinabi niya dati," she said, adding Montero did not explain in his withdrawal why he recanted his testimony.  Ruby Rose’s body was fished out of Navotas waters inside a cement-sealed steel container in 2009. She was reported missing in March 2007. Montero had confessed that he was among those who were paid P50,000 each to kill Ruby Rose on March 12, 2007. He surrendered to the police on May 18, 2009 and led investigators to the location of Ruby Rose's remains. Montero said the order came from Manuel Jimenez Jr. and his younger brother Lope, a shipping magnate in Navotas City and owner of Buena Suerte Jimenez Fishing and Trading Co., the property where the steel drum containing Ruby Rose's body was found. Manuel Jr. is Ruby Rose's father-in-law. Her husband, Manuel Jimenez III, has been cleared of involvement in the killing. In 2010, the Barramedas asked the court to reconsider a ruling listing Montero as among the suspects. The motion was granted. Aside from the Jimenez brothers, Montero also linked four people — Eric Fernandez, Spike Discalzo, Rudy dela Cruz, and Robert Ponze — to the killing. Innocent In a statement, Lope's lawyer Ferdinand Topacio said Montero's withdrawal should be enough proof that his client was innocent. “The clear and unequivocal recantation of Manuel Montero, lone government witness against our client, businessman Lope Jimenez, his older brother Atty. Manuel Jimenez and nephew Manuel III, among many others, is a validation all along of our consistent and unflinching stand that our client is innocent, and that the testimony of Mr. Montero is fabricated and procured by those who have ulterior motives against the Jimenez Family borne of ill-feelings and other ignoble considerations," he said. Topacio said he cannot see now how the Department of Justice (DOJ) will be able to proceed with the prosecution of the case. "The proper and decent thing for the Justice Department to do is to move for the dismissal of the case against our client, consistent with its mandate to do justice. It must be remembered by the Justice Department that it does not serve the ends of justice for it to continue prosecuting innocent persons," he said. He also said his client still feels that all those who "heaped accusations against him in a most dastardly and malevolent manner" must apologize for destroying his life and reputation. "Mr. Lope Jimenez will now have to pick up the pieces of his life, as it were, and much of the stigma may never disappear. This case indeed is a classic example of the justice system run riot due to excessive publicity and the propensity of the victim’s family to indulge in trial by publicity," he said. — KBK, GMA News