THE Department of Justice is readying a request to the Indonesian government for the extradition of Dalia Guerrero Pastor, the widow of slain car racer Ferdinand “Enzo’” Pastor.
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said Dalia is hiding in Indonesia, using another name.
The Supreme Court has reversed a Court of Appeals ruling and upheld the warrant of arrest and hold departure order issued by the Quezon City Regional Trial Court against Dalia as a co-conspirator in the murder of her husband in June 2014.
“There are just some things we have to validate. Information we have to validate, such as the name she is using there so that when we do the request, it is going to fall in sync with all the allegations that we have on the case,” Remulla told reporters in a chance interview yesterday.
“We have to get the facts, validate everything. And I asked for documents which were submitted just today to one of my people. But we haven’t checked it yet,” he added.
Remulla earlier said they had information that Dalia was hiding in Indonesia or Malaysia.
Asked if the government will not run into difficulty considering the murder took place 10 years ago, Remulla said the evidence has been preserved.
“I think that the evidence has been preserved, or else, it can be thrown out. Pero wala eh. For the Supreme Court to say that the case lives on, then we ought to listen to the Supreme Court,” he said.
He said he met with the parents of the slain car racer last Sunday, who asked the government to do something to locate and return to the country their erstwhile daughter-in-law.
Enzo was aboard his truck along with his mechanic when he was shot by a man on Visayas Ave. in Quezon City on June 12, 2014.
Aside from Dalia, the DOJ also charged two other personalities for the murder, namely, Police Officer II Edgar Angel and her alleged lover, Domingo De Guzman.
Angel and De Guzman were arrested, while Dalia remained at large.
Angel claimed De Guzman paid him P100,000 to eliminate Dalia’s husband.
Police investigators pursued a love triangle angle in the murder case, with De Guzman suspected as the mastermind.
The DOJ is also working with other government agencies and international counterparts to track down and extradite Dalia.
“The wheels of justice will not remain idle or passive now that the High Court has passed down its judgment, the DOJ will join our partner agencies in hunting down the mastermind of Enzo Pastor’s murder,” Remulla said.
The department worked for the extradition from Indonesia of dismissed Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo, her purported sibling Sheila Guo, and Katherine Cassandra Li Ong.
It is also working with Timor Leste’s authorities to extradite former Negros Oriental Rep. Arnolfo “Arnie” Teves Jr., who is facing multiple murder charges in connection with the 2023 assassination of Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo.
