1 From the Manila Times by Jomar Canlas 5april20212 From Rappler by Lian Buan 5april20213 From ABS-CBN News Mike Navallo 21dec20204 Ex-CA justice fined for casino gambling 23april20185 SC SLAPS CA JUSTICE PIZARRO WITH 100K PESOS FINE6 PIZARRO SHOULD HAVE BEEN DISMISSED BASED ON GR- 183273 AND AC-10064 PENDING COMPLAINTS7 "BEWARE OF CA ASSO JUSTICE NORMANDIE PIZARRO'S PENDING CASES AGAINST HIM"8 "NAGKUTSABAHANG NANLINLANG SINA PIZARRO, JUSTICE MARTIRES ET AL"9 MARTIRES ET AL ARE LYING. PIZARRO HAS PENDING CASES IN THE SUPREME COURT10 "THIS IS ABOUT THE SUPREME COURT's CONSISTENT PARTIALITY"11 THE TRUTH IS PIZARRO IS ALIVE AND A MAN LIVING A LIFE TATTERED WITH UNSCRUPULOUS INDISCRETIONS |
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The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has charged with murder the suspect in the 2020 killing of retired Court of Appeals (CA) Justice Normandie Pizarro.The murder complaint against Dr. Ramon Tayag Pangan was filed before the Department of Justice (DoJ) on March 23, and a copy of it was obtained by The Manila Times.
Named as complainants were the NBI, represented by Agents Zack Hansel Balba, Paul Bacon and Mar Santos, and the son of the slain magistrate, Normandie B. Pizarro Jr.
The body of the magistrate was found by authorities in Sitio Palublub, Barangay Lawy, Cristo Rey, Capas, Tarlac. He had been shot once in the back of the head. His body was also mutilated.
Based on the facts of the case, Pizarro had fetched Pangan earlier that day at Puregold, Clark, Pampanga. “They were alone in the car until the time that Revie (Yumang), who was the last person who talked to the victim, claimed that the phone of the victim was unattended at around 11:28 a.m. of October 23, 2020.”
In charging Pangan with murder, the complaint alleges that there was premeditation, based on Pangan’s extra-judicial confession prepared by his lawyer, Shelamarie Beltran.
In the December 11, 2020 confession, Pangan admitted he planned the killing of Pizarro. He said he conspired with three unidentified persons in bringing Pizarro to Sitio Palublub where he and his companions killed him.
As further evidence of premeditation, Pangan had befriended Pizarro to gain his trust.
Pangan cut off the right hand and left fingers of the victim and stripped him of his clothes, according to the complaint.
Pangan also participated in the re-enactment of the crime, and “after having been haunted by his conscience, he freely executed an extra judicial confession.
The suspect insisted he could not identify his companions because they wore masks.
While Pangan’s confession “may have been replete with falsities and inconsistencies, it cannot be denied that he made a narration of events and circumstances that only a person who had participated in the killing would know. He knew the manner of killing, the position of the cadaver and the place where the body and vehicle were dumped. Taken all together, his knowledge of the circumstances surrounding the killing of Associate Justice Pizarro is certain and categorical, proving his primary involvement in the killing and no other,” the complaint stated.
The NBI also took into account the written statement of a certain Raul Concepcion that the associate justice confided to him in a text message the unpaid loans of Pangan amounting to P90,000.
Doctor faces murder complaint over killing of ex-CA justice Pizarro
APR 5, 2021 8:17 PM PHT
LIAN BUAN
MANILA, PHILIPPINES
Retired justice Normandie Pizarro was shot on the back of his head, says the NBI. The suspect is a doctor who supposedly owes Pizarro money for 'working on a big case.
The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) filed a murder complaint against a certain Ramon Pangan, a doctor and Pampanga resident, over the killing of retired Court of Appeals (CA) associate justice Normandie Pizarro.
In excerpts of the complaint dated February 22, the NBI said Pangan had "glaring inconsistencies" in his affidavit about the details of the day Pizarro was last seen, which was October 23, 2020.
Pizarro was spotted at a casino in Clark, Pampanga, on October 23, but by afternoon, his vehicle was seen abandoned in the town of San Simon. Bloodstains were seen in the vehicle.
Pizarro was found dead on October 30 in Capas, Tarlac. "The cause of death was later identified as gunshot wound to the head, entry at the back of the head, exiting at the left temple," the NBI said in its complaint.
Debt?
According to the NBI, Pangan was with Pizarro on October 23.
The NBI's witnesses claimed Pangan owed Pizarro P90,000 because the retired justice "was working on a big case for the Pangans."
Pizarro had been controversial throughout his stint at the CA, and in April 2018 when he was already retired, the Supreme Court en banc found him guilty of conduct unbecoming of a member of the judiciary over instances of gambling in a casino.
Pangan, in his affidavit as cited by the NBI, said he asked Pizarro to "stop the car and drop him near the Grotto at Bamban, Tarlac," at around 12 pm of October 23.
"Dr Pangan allegedly walked a few meters where he noticed mountains and boarded a jeepney with a signboard going to Mabalacat, Pampanga," said the NBI, citing Pangan's affidavit.
"Based on the CCTV footage secured by the operatives of the NBI, Dr Pangan neither walked in the area near the mountains nor rode a jeepney with a signboard going to Mabalacat, Pampanga," added the bureau.
The NBI said the CCTV footage that showed Pizarro's car from 11 am at a bridge in Capas up until 12:29 pm traversing Bamban "did not show any jeepney."
Prosecutor General Ben Malcontento said summons may be sent after the enhanced community quarantine in Metro Manila. The complaint was transmitted to the headquarters of the Department of Justice in Manila and was assigned to state prosecutors.
Controversial
Pizarro retired in February 2018, a year ahead of his mandatory retirement.
He left the CA with a controversial acquittal of former Palawan governor Joel Reyes in the Gerry Ortega murder case. The acquittal was later reversed and the murder charge against Reyes was revived by a different set of CA justices.
The Reyes acquittal was a decision called "preposterous and premature" by his co-justices, and one that "stinks," according to Solicitor General Jose Calida.
Pizarro also penned the ruling which acquitted Janet Lim Napoles in her serious illegal detention case in May 2017.
He was the ponencia of the ruling that nullified a Hawaii court decision which had granted $2 billion worth of damages to Martial Law victims.
Pizarro is among the 61 lawyers who have been killed under President Rodrigo Duterte's administration. – Rappler.com
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NBI, DOJ confirm death of ex-CA Justice Normandie Pizarro
Mike Navallo, ABS-CBN News
Posted at Dec 21 2020 10:00 PM | Updated as of Dec 22 2020 11:05 AM
MANILA (2nd UPDATE) — The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday confirmed that the body found with missing left fingers and right hand in Tarlac in October was former Court of Appeals Justice Normandie Pizarro, who had gone missing in the same month.
Justice Undersecretary Adrian Sugay said the confirmation was “based on DNA test results” on a “then-unidentified body” found in Brgy. Cristo Rey, Capas, Tarlac on October 30, a week after the retired justice went missing.
National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) director Eric Distor, in a separate message, said the bureau's forensics team was able to confirm a DNA match of “99.99%.”
Pizarro was last seen via a CCTV footage on October 23 getting inside a black Honda Accord in a hotel and casino in Clark, Pampanga — later identified as the Midori Hotel and Casino.
That car was next seen parked in Mabanak Road, Barangay San Juan in San Simon, Pampanga in the afternoon of the same day.
In photos provided by police to ABS-CBN News in October, the abandoned car did not have any plate number.
San Simon Police said they saw dried liquid inside the car, which the Pampanga Provincial Police Office later confirmed to be blood.
Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta extended his sympathies to Pizarro's family and urged authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice.
"The killing and murder of any person is never tolerated by our laws. In fact, our courts will always condemn it. I ask our law enforcement agencies to press on with their investigation so that the perpetrators of this barbaric act can be caught and brought to justice," he said in a statement.
The Pizarro family said they would not give any comment for now.
NBI PROBE
The NBI later started a parallel probe after the Pizzaro family approached them.
NBI spokesperson Ferdinand Lavin said the NBI forensics team was able to confirm the former magistrate's identity when results of the DNA test came out on Saturday.
At the time the cadaver was recovered, Lavin said the fingers were “missing” and the right hand was “cut off” while the corpse itself was deteriorating.
“This is precisely to have difficulty in identifying the cadaver,” he said.
With the retired justice’s fingers missing, the NBI resorted to other means to try to identify the cadaver.
They tried forensic odontology or using dental science but hit a dead end when they learned his dental records when he was Court of Appeals justice were incomplete.
The NBI then resorted to DNA testing by taking swab samples from the black car Pizarro was using at the time of his disappearance and comparing it with the DNA from the femur (thigh bone) of the cadaver and DNA samples from Pizarro’s 2 sons.
“We wanted to be really sure. Our doctors also earlier told us na ito 'yung measurements ng human body, 'yung height-wise, 'yung size (that these are the measurements of the human body, the height, the size). So we thought of going to the DNA to be very sure about it,” he said.
“And we found a 99.99% match. Very high probability,” he added.
The NBI also reviewed CCTV footage of the hotel as well as cellphone signals and was able to establish a brief timeline of what happened:
At 10:30 am, Pizarro left the Midori Hotel
He went out of Clark but came back to pick up a man within the vicinity
After a few hours, Pizarro’s cellphone signal was lost, last traced to Bamban, Tarlac, a town away from Capas where his cadaver was later recovered
Pizarro’s car was spotted in San Simon, Pampanga that same afternoon; police later said there were blood stains
Lavin said the NBI is now looking at 3 persons of interest. One of them was the last person seen with Pizarro who apparently owed him money. The two met at a casino in August.
He added that one of Pizarro’s children identified the person of interest, who is now cooperating with the NBI, assisted by a lawyer.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, on the other hand, said the NBI is looking at 4 persons of interest including one who is “willing to divulge what he knows.”
“I would say siguro in mga (maybe in a) few more days or weeks, we could crack this case. This is already a good breakthrough for us, iyung identification, kasi you can just imagine kung 'yung na-recover hindi 'yun (the identification, because you can just imagine if the body that was recovered was not him),” Lavin said.
Lavin, however, said the NBI is still building the case and it’s too early to determine the motive.
Aside from the debt angle, the NBI is not ruling out other possible motives, including high-profile cases Pizarro handled.
CONTROVERSIAL CA JUSTICE
👀NEWS REPORT
Pizarro, who retired in 2018 a year ahead of his mandatory retirement, is a controversial justice.
👀KILALANIN: CA justice na ponente sa pag-absuwelto kay Joel Reyes
He junked the murder case against former Palawan Governor Joel Reyes who was accused of killing Palawan-based environmentalist and radio host Dr. Gerry Ortega.
👀Dating Palawan gov na sangkot sa Ortega murder laya na
The Court of Appeals, however, reversed the ruling and reinstated the murder charge in November 2019.
👀CA reinstates murder charge vs ex-Palawan governor Reyes, orders arrest
Pizarro also acquitted Janet Lim Napoles of serious illegal detention based on reasonable doubt in May 2017 and rejected a Hawaiian court ruling awarding $2 billion in compensation to Martial Law victims.
👀Janet Napoles acquitted in Luy illegal detention case
👀CA junks $2-B claim of Marcos rights victims
In April 2018, the Supreme Court fined him P100,000 for conduct unbecoming of a member of the judiciary over instances of gambling in a casino.
