THE Justice Department will today hold its preliminary investigation into the criminal charges against Vhon Martin Tanto, the former Army reservist who shot and killed a cyclist in a road rage incident in Quiapo, Manila, last week.
Tanto will be brought to the department for a hearing on the murder and frustrated-murder complaints filed by the families of slain victim Mark Vincent Garalde and Rossel Bondoc, the 18-year-old student who was hit by a stray bullet during the incident.
Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada on Monday paid for Bondoc’s hospital bills, which he did not disclose but which the girl’s relatives said was enough to cover the total amount due, which had almost reached P200,000.
The stray bullet grazed one of Bondoc’s kidneys and hit one of her veins, but one of her doctors said she could be discharged in 10 to 14 days.
Senior Deputy State Prosecutor Theodore Villanueva set the hearing on Tanto’s case at 2 p.m.
Lawyer Trixie Cruz-Angeles, who agreed to represent the accused for a “limited engagement,” will help Tanto, who was arrested in Masbate on Friday last week after a few days in hiding.
Angeles implied that since Tanto had already admitted shooting Garalde, they might pursue the lower charge of homicide.
Tanto was brought to the Justice Department on Saturday for inquest proceedings. However, he was not able to formally answer the charges because he did not have a lawyer, prompting the prosecutor to reset the hearing.
Tanto had earlier said he did not intend to shoot Garalde, but he lost his temper because of the cyclist’s arrogance during their altercation.
“I rolled down the window and said sorry. I told him to be more careful and that bikers should keep to the roadside,” Tanto said in a television interview.
“He suddenly cursed me. I asked him to stop cursing, but he did not stop. I had already apologized but he kept on cursing me. We fought, and he had the upper hand because he was taller. That can be seen on the CCTV.”
The altercation started when Tanto’s car was nearly hit by Garalde’s bicycle along Vergara Street, a few meters away from P. Casal Street where the fistfight and shooting took place on July 25.