MVF submits counter-affidavit: No basis for charges Manila - On the afternoon of July 12, 2005, LC Mayor Michael V. Fariñas, currently under investigation by the Department of Justice for his alleged role in the killing of LC Vice-mayor Jimmy O. Chua, finally appeared before State prosecutor Esperanza Rosario, chairperson of the DOJ preliminary investigation panel, to formally submit his counter-affidavit to charges he allegedly shot and killed LC Vice-mayor Jimmy Chua. In his affidavit, Fariñas, one of the respondents in I.S. no. 2005-206 pending before the Department of Justice entitled “NBI-Edison Chua vs Michael Fariñas, et al.,” reiterated his previous statements that he was no longer at the Eagles Nest Bar and Restaurant having already left with co-respondent Col. Joel Pagdilao, when the vice-mayor was shot and killed as attested to by several witnesses - Jun Olidan, Lilian Lorenzo, Analyn Pascual, Michelle Agustin, Beth Bordey, Gladys Madamba, Mateo Francisco, and Errol Bugaoisan, whose statements have corroborated LC Councilor Melvin Dela Cuesta’s affidavits dated February 2, 4, and 7. Emphasis was also made of Dela Cuesta’s April 8 affidavit repudiating his 4th affidavit last February 24 wherein he pointed to the Mayor as the one who “shot Vice-mayor Jimmy Chua,” on which the conclusion of the Evaluation Comment and Orille Report was “solely based.” Further, Fariñas’ counter-affidavit also purports to question the validity and reliability of the evidences recovered and presented by the NBI, stating among others various reasons such as an alleged “break in the chain of custody of evidence’ as well as clear contamination of the crime scene at the time of the February 10 and 16 NBI investigations, long after the crime had taken place. Further, in paragraph 36 there is the implication that the evidence may even have been “planted” by unspecified persons. At any rate, even if the evidences were “uncontaminated” and “beyond reproach,” the findings “may only prove, at best, that Vice-mayor Chua had been shot and killed; said evidence does not in any manner establish the identity of the person who shot and killed him.” In summary, the affidavit concludes that there is “no factual basis to charge affiant as the one who shot and killed Vice-mayor Chua with the withdrawal of the only statement linking the affiant to the said crime.” When queried by The Ilocos Times at the DOJ after the hearing, Mayor Fariñas declined any further comment. Steve T. Barreiro
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