Pandi, Bulacan mayor seeks dismissal of rape case
The camp of Pandi, Bulacan Mayor Enrico Roque has asked a regional trial court in Caloocan City to dismiss the rape charges and the revokation of the warrant of arrest against him and two others.
Roque, along with Pandi Councilor Jonjon Roxas, and government employee Roel Raymundo were nabbed on Tuesday after being charged with two counts of rape, with the arrest warrant issued by the Regional Trial Court Branch 121 in Caloocan City.
No bail has been recommended for the accused.
The case stemmed from an alleged gang rape of Mikaela Mariano on April 6, 2019 in Roque’s house at Bagong Silang, Caloocan City.
The criminal case states that the accused conspired, confederated, and mutually helped one another “with lewd and through force did then and there willfully, unlawfully, and feloniously have carnal knowledge” with Mariano.
On Wednesday, the Northern Police District (NPD) announced that Roque, Roxas, and Raymundo were apprehended at a waterpark in Pandi, Bulacan and were detained at the NPD Custodial Facility.
In a motion to quash shared by Atty. John Ree Doctor to GMA News Online, the accused argued that the warrant of arrest is a “clear violation of [their] constitutional right to due process.”
They also said that the charges were “aside from being false and made up, are politically motivated which is designed only to harass” the accused.
They also said that they were “deprived of the opportunity to be informed of the facts and circumstances of the charges filed against them in violation of the constitutional right to due process” when they were not able to receive a copy of the complaint against them nor any pleading related to the case.
The motion stated that all the accused are residents of Pandi, Bulacan, and not of Bagong Silang, Caloocan—where the records of the City Prosecutor was addressed to. —NB, GMA Integrated News