The family of alleged murder victim Ruby Rose Barrameda-Jimenez on Monday asked President Rodrigo Duterte and Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra to thoroughly review the decision of a lower court in Malabon City that dismissed the parricide case they filed against the estranged husband.
“If he [the President] could look into the case. Since the President was once a prosecutor he would understand. I am appealing so that we would have the chance to obtain justice,” Ruby Rose’s mother Asuncion said in a press conference.
Asuncion appealed to Guevarra to help them in pursuing the parricide case they filed against Ruby Rose’s husband Manuel “Third” Jimenez III after the case was dismissed by Malabon City Regional Trial Court, Branch 170, Acting Presiding Judge Edwin Larida Jr. even without subjecting the husband to an arraignment, and even without a warrant of arrest was even issued against him.
Barrameda’s lawyer Al Lazaro said they would coordinate with other agencies such as the DOJ, in pursuing the prosecution of the accused.
“This is not the end of the story. The case was not dismissed based on the merits. In fact, it did not even reach arraignment, so there is no double jeopardy here,” the lawyer said.
The victim’s family lamented that Judge Larida, who only took over the case a few months ago, dismissed last July 10 the murder case filed against Ruby Rose’s father-in-law lawyer Manuel Jimenez Jr., Manuel Montero, Spyke Descalso, and Robert Ponce.
Two other accused—the uncle-in-law Lope Jimenez and Eric Fernandez are reportedly currently at large, while Montero, who became the complainant’s lone state witness, reportedly went missing.
The parricide case against Ruby Rose’s husband “Third” was dismissed last Aug. 15 even if the probable cause in filing the case against him was upheld four times by the DOJ, the Office of the President, Court of Appeals and even by the Supreme Court.
In the motion for reconsideration, the Barrameda family filed before the Malabon City RTC Branch 170 last Sept. 25, the family sought the inhibition of Judge Larida from further handling the case; for the Aug. 15 order dismissing the case against Third be reconsidered and set aside; and for the case to be set for arraignment.
In a statement, the Barrameda family described the turnout of their quest for justice as “brutal and dreadful” as the murder of Ruby Rose. “To us justice was so unreachable. We were at our lowest point when we got the dismissal order,” they said.
The criminal cases stemmed from the discovery of the remains of Ruby Rose, who went missing on March 2007 and in 2009, her body was found inside a drum filled with cement and thrown into the waters off Navotas City in 2009.
