CEBU CITY -- The Land Transportation Office (LTO) in Central Visayas found nine Mitsubishi Pajeros registered in the region with license plates ending in 679.
It gave the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in the region the owners' names and addresses, as part of the continuing search for proof in the kidnapping and murder of Ellah Joy Pique, a six-year-old girl from Minglanilla.
None of the nine is registered in the name of Karen Castro Esdrelon, 24, a Cebuana nurse who is being held along with her Norwegian fiancé for the February 8 kidnapping.
Esdrelon and her lawyer, Salvador Solima, said they are planning to file administrative complaints against outgoing Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO) Director Erson Digal, if the complaint against her and Sven Erik Berger is not dismissed.
"Di kabayran ang among sakripisyo ug among kauwaw (Nothing compares to the sacrifices we have made and the shame we have been subjected to)," she said.
Esdrelon and Berger submitted their joint counter-affidavit last Monday and asked the Provincial Prosecutor's Office to dismiss outright the complaint for kidnapping with homicide.
The Pique family's lawyer opposed the counter-affidavit on Tuesday.
"Their (NBI) findings have no binding effect. It must be tested by cross-examination as to its truth by the opposing party during trial," said lawyer Roque Amante Jr.
Renante Pique, the child's father, still suspects Berger and Esdrelon of having a hand in the crime.
The duo has said it was "impossible" for them to commit the crime because their "movements were only confined" to the Norwegian School and the Waterfront Hotel in Cebu City when the crime was committed on February 8.
But Amante said the child-witnesses have no motive to "falsely testify" against the couple since they only know the victim and not the respondents.
He also said that Cebu City is just a few minutes away from Minglanilla town, especially when one uses the South Coastal Road.
"It is not impossible for the respondents to be at the scene of the incident on that afternoon that the school children were dismissed at 3 p.m.," he said.
Esdrelon appealed to Ellah Joy's parents and relatives not to judge them, and said it was the police force's fault that the family blamed her and Berger.
She said the police gave Ellah Joy's family "false hope" that they are about to get justice.
Berger told reporters he is happy that Governor Gwendolyn Garcia told the NBI to look into their alibis. (The NBI is part of a provincial inter-agency task force against crime.)
"She knew something was wrong," Berger said.
Assistant Provincial Prosecutor Marlon Atillo said on Tuesday that he will resolve the complaint next week.
The prosecutor's office is only waiting for the written comment of Lamberto Masana-Hibaya, officer-in-charge of the Provincial Investigation and Detective Management Branch, on the verbal manifestation of defense lawyer Salvador Solima.
Solima, during the filing of his clients' counter-affidavit Monday, told Atillo a clarificatory hearing is not needed, since the complaints ought to be dismissed outright.
For his part, NBI-Central Visayas Director Eduard Villarta said they will begin tracking the registered owners of each vehicle "as soon as we are given the go-signal."
Any further investigation will depend on how the Office of the Cebu Provincial Prosecutor resolves the criminal complaint.
Villarta said there is a need to verify, given how the witnesses were all children who described the vehicle as a black Pajero, though they could have actually meant any dark SUV.
The list LTO-Central Visayas Director Raul Aguilos endorsed to the NBI included nine Pajeros colored black or blue.
Aguilos said that Stradcom, the LTO's information technology provider, finally released the results of their search. At least 266 SUVs have license plates ending in 679. Nine are Mitsubishi Pajero registered in Central Visayas.
The police, for their part, want to resolve the case "as soon as possible," said Senior Superintendent Louie Oppus.
A task force was formed by the Police Regional Office last week.
"We will go deeper into the case," Oppus told reporters on Tuesday. "We are continuing the case." (EOB/KAL/KNR/GMD
