00:00 The Department of Justice expressed its concern over the reported settlement in the case involving missing cockfighters.
00:06 Luisa Arispe tells us more.
00:08 After more than a year since several cockfighting aficionados were reported missing,
00:15 the Department of Justice has since received several reports from the families that a certain group has offered blood money in exchange for withdrawal of their complaints.
00:25 Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remullo himself confirmed the first case, specifically John Claude Inonog, withdrew his complaint after allegedly receiving bribe money.
00:35 One of the family members was here earlier, non-cumital, but to tell us that they had settled already.
00:43 We have affidavits on record about them withdrawing the cases.
00:49 But you can see the strategy of the lawyers of the accused in case number one, was really to have the only standing case with a standing warrant of arrest dismissed by settling the families, settling with the families.
01:07 PTV has yet to confirm with Butch Inonog, father of John Claude Inonog, if they indeed withdrew the complaint.
01:14 But the DOJ said the case has not been dismissed yet. However, it affected the strength of their case as well as other complaints of the other families.
01:23 Case number one is the only case with which a warrant of arrest was issued against suspects related to the Manila arena.
01:33 But this is very alarming because it is the only case where the accused group of Patidongan and company are implicated in the missing Sabongero cases.
01:46 The other families on the other hand expressed dismay over the unexpected developments.
01:51 The big question for us is why? Because from the start, they started the fight. We only gave them a strong evidence.
02:02 For us, it's like nothing happened. That's why we don't know why, what the reason is.
02:10 We were expecting that case because the other one with a warrant is also one of the cases we are suing. Now, we were just talking about it and they said that we will fight until the end.
02:24 The DOJ promised to continue investigating given the unexpected developments.
02:28 They have requested for written reports from the National Bureau of Investigation and the PNPC-IDG on the status of the probe.
02:36 But definitely something has to happen with regards to the police organization on how they will handle the case.
02:42 Because if we are not satisfied, we will have to find another way so that the case will still move.
02:49 Luisa Erispe for the Nation.
