Suspect in Cebu Teen’s Brutal Slay Returns to DSWD

The 17-year-old suspect in the gruesome killing of his girlfriend, Christine Lee Silawan, is now back at the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in Lapu-Lapu City.

Lawyer Vincent Isles, the legal counsel of the suspect, said his client has voluntarily returned to the Home Care Children Center of DSWD on Thursday morning.

The teen suspect’s return to the custody of DSWD should not be interpreted as re-arrest, as ordered by President Rodrigo Duterte, or a sign that the case is going against him, the lawyer said.

Re-admitting the suspect to government care center has something to do with the “boy’s safety,” he said.

“We voluntarily submit my client under protective custody because we are afraid of his safety,” he said.

Isles pointed out that the suspect did not “surrender” so that he can be detained.

The move to voluntarily submit the suspect to government’s protective custody, he said, should also not affect the case.

The Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 11 in Cebu City will hear on Friday (March 29) the petition to quash the warrant to search, seize, and examine computer data (WSSECD) and a separate petition to return the belongings of the suspect seized by the operatives of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI 7) in Central Visayas when he was held without an arrest warrant last March 16.

The belongings such as shoes and clothing are not considered computer data under the cyber libel law.

Agents of the NBI-7 arrested the suspect pursuant to the WSSECD issued by RTC Branch 11 last March 16.

NBI-7 officials filed on March 18 a case of murder against the suspect before the Lapu-Lapu City Prosecutors Office.

The panel of prosecutors issued on March 22 a resolution releasing the suspect from the DSWD, describing the arrest as invalid and does not fall under “hot pursuit”.

Earlier, President Duterte ordered the re-arrest of the suspect. (PNA)