Ten years ago, our blog featured the case of Enzo Pastor, who was allegedly assassinated by his wife Dalia Guerrero-Pastor and her reported lover, Domingo De Guzman III. The case stalled in 2020 after the Court of Appeals dismissed the parricide case against her for lack of probable cause and recalled both the arrest warrant and the HDO issued by the QC RTC.
The Supreme Court has recently just reinstated the arrest warrant and hold departure order (HDO) against Dalia.
The case involved the then 32-year Enzo Pastor, who was old was killed on 12 June 2014, after motorcycle-riding gunmen ambushed the truck he rode on in Quezon City. Paolo Salazar, his assistant, was alive to tell what happened, but was injured from the incident.
The alleged mastermind and the alleged gunman in the killing were later arrested. The Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit (CIDU) of Quezon City Police District identified businessman Domingo De Guzman III as the brain behind the incident, while PO2 Edgar Angel was identified as the alleged gunman.
The decision was made as far back as 26 February, but was only made public only on 3 October, the high court’s Second Division overturned the Court of Appeals (CA) ruling that dismissed the parricide case against Dalia and ordered a "full-blown trial" of all the accused.
The SC found ample evidence that she participated in her husband’s assassination, the high court said "Dalia’s acts … show that she not only served as a strong motivation to carry out the plan, but she had an active hand in planning the ambush of Enzo."
"Too, her abrupt absence right after a warrant of arrest was issued on her lends credence to the prosecution’s case that she is probably guilty of the offense charged," it added.
The decision on the consolidated cases G.R. Nos. 255100, 255229 and 255503 was penned by Associate Justice Amy Lazaro-Javier.
The high court emphasized that the mere existence of probable cause does not equate to a conviction and did not violate an accused’s right to be presumed innocent.
In overturning the CA’s decision, the Supreme Court cited Article 8 of the Revised Penal Code which states that a conspiracy exists when two or more persons come to an agreement concerning the commission of a felony and decide to commit it.
The tribunal said a finding of probable cause needs only to rest on evidence showing that, more likely than not, a crime has been committed and was committed by the suspects.
"It is not a pronouncement of guilt, rather it merely binds the suspect to stand trial. Evidence required to establish probable cause does not need to amount to guilt beyond reasonable doubt," the Supreme Court said.
Contrary to the CA’s pronouncements, there was sufficient evidence on record clearly identifying Dalia as a coconspirator, it said.
It cited the testimony of Pastor’s house help claiming to have witnessed Dalia’s affair with De Guzman and the account of Alvin Nidua, a confessed gun-for-hire, who claimed he met with Dalia and De Guzman and that both offered him PhP 200,000 to kill Enzo, an amount he declined for being too low.
It also noted the testimony of Salazar, who was with Pastor on the truck going to Pampanga and recalled that Dalia phoned her husband several times to keep track of their location.