The elusive pursuit of justice for the death of Ruby Rose Barrameda is still on more than a decade after her body was found inside a drum submerged in the waters off a port in Navotas.
Malabon Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 170 Acting Presiding Judge Edwin Larida, Jr., dismissed the murder case against her father-in-law Manuel Jimenez, Jr., and two other accused, Lennard “Spyke” Descalso and Norberto Ponce after prosecutors failed to establish their guilt beyond reasonable doubt. The order was dated July 10, 2019.
The same court also dismissed the parricide case against Barrameda’s estranged husband, Manuel Jimenez III for lack of probable cause.
According to the court order, with the disappearance of its accused-turned-witness Manuel Montero and his retraction of his earlier statement in 2013, the court found no sufficient evidence to convict the three accused for murder.
Likewise, the parricide case was dismissed after the testimonies of the police officers did not mention the husband and neither was he shown to have participated directly or indirectly or acted in conspiracy with others in effecting the killing, according to another Aug. 15 order.
However, two other accused, Lope Jimenez and Eric Fernandez, still remain at large and will continue to face the murder charge.
As expected, the court’s decision didn’t sit well with Barrameda’s family.
They accused the judge of “unmistakable bias in favor of the accused” for the dismissal of the parricide case. They want the sitting judge to inhibit from the case since they think he swiftly acted on it despite being assigned just recently to the post.
The Barrameda family is also appealing to the missing witness, Montero to resurface.
Ruby Rose, the sister of former beauty queen Rochelle Barrameda, went missing last March 14, 2007 after she visited her children at the house of the Jimenezes.
Her body was only recovered in June 2009 after Montero surfaced and pointed the area where it was dumped.
