Pilloried by his own close associates, the police, and the public, 2nd District Provincial Board Member Nino Rey Boniel flatly denied “with vehemence” any involvement in the alleged gruesome killing of his wife, Bien Unido Mayor Gisela Bendong-Boniel.

In a five-page counter affidavit filed before the Lapu-lapu City Prosecution Office on June 23, 2017, Nino Rey declared that “I vehemently deny to have voluntarily confessed before the Regional Director of PRO7 of killing my own wife as I hereby deny the complaint of Parricide against me.”

Boniel’s defense was anchored in the failure of the police to find the alleged dead body of his wife and the “physical and psychological investigative pressure” exerted by police investigators led by the Philippine National Police Regional Intelligence Division (PNP-RID) – Regional Special Operations Group (RSOG) that pressured his co-respondents to turn against him.

GONE HIDING

The “disappearing act” of Mayor Gisela, according to her husband Nino Rey was apparently staged managed by no less than his wife to elude creditors who were running after her to collect. 

Racked by a sizable amount of debt, Boniel believes “that possibility that Gisela is still alive is high”, claiming “that as of now, the only reason that I could think of for her sudden disappearance, if not, feigning death, is her neck high debts to different creditors.”

According to Boniel, their house in Monterazzas de Cebu, an upscale mountain village located in Guadalupe, Cebu City “has been mortgaged to pay off her long unpaid obligations which she incurred before we got married.”

MAXIMUM TOLERANCE

In his counter affidavit, Boniel also revealed that “had I the intention of killing her, I could have done it inside a hotel room with her paramour.”

Boniel admitted that on several occasions “I personally have uncovered her infidelity.”  

“We have already patched up our said differences as in fact we planned to file an annulment case for us to freely separate ways in accordance with law.”

PARANORMAL 

On Friday, the presence of Mayor Gisela in Dubai went viral over social media after Atty.Gerry Carillo, member of Boniel’s defense team was quoted by Cebu media that she was spotted in the largest and most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after she was reported killed in the early morning hours of June 7, 2017.

Carillo, in a phone interview with DYRD reporter Rey Tutas did not elaborate on the source of his information regarding the presence of Mayor Boniel in Dubai.

A copy of a Bohol Chronicle article entitled “Was it “Georgie” I was talking to or her spirit?” which was first published on this newspaper’s Sunday edition on June 11, 2017 was attached as evidence by Boniel to bolster his claim that Gisela was still alive “eighteen hours after he heard the report of her alleged abduction.”

The Chronicle article narrated the “mysterious” brief conversation between Gisela and Lifestyle-Bohol Chronicle “Roving Eye” writer Raul Gatal who asserted that “it was her voice on the other end of the line.”

The conversation took place after the Chronicle tried to arrange a live interview with Mayor Gisela after receiving information that something was amiss in Bien Unido and BM Boniel was detained at the BPPO for unknown reasons.

COERCED TESTIMONIES

Boniel also slammed the police handling the investigation of the complaint for parricide for a botched up job pushing his co-respondents to “just inventing stories of admission.” and “intentionally fabricated statements.” hurled against him.

“We were made to issue statements under duress without the assistance of counsel while holding us in detention and under custodial investigation in utter violation of our constitutional right.”

Boniel decried the apparent inconsistencies in the statements of Randel Lupas, driver and regular employee of the Local Government Unit of Bien Unido in the two affidavits that he executed for the parricide and illegal detention/kidnapping cases.

According to Boniel, in the illegal/detention affidavit, Lupas stated that he was awakened by the bodyguards of BM Boniel – Willie Hoylar and Jun Magoncia to drive Angela Leyson and her son to Tubigon port.

But in his sworn statement in the parricide complaint, Lupas told the police that before he brought Leyson and her son to Tubigon port he was ordered by Hoylar and Magoncia to help Allan Delos Reyes move the body of a still struggling Gisela who was wrapped in a blanket to a waiting pump boat, Boniel said.

Boniel surmised that the change in the statement of Lupas was “intentionally crafted by the investigators and forced upon Randel Lupas as his own to suit their move to file the parricide case in Lapu-lapu City instead of Bohol.”

Boniel also was dismayed over the vast difference in the statements of Riolito Boniel, his first degree cousin over the identity of the triggerman in the shooting of his wife.

In his earlier statement to the media, Riolito said that he did not actually see Nino Rey shot Gisela but only heard a “gun report.”

However, in the parricide affidavit, Boniel claimed that Nino Rey grabbed the hair of Gisela who was struggling to free herself, shot her in the head and dumped her dead body with the help of Delos Reyes in the waters between Caubian and Olango Islands.

NO BODY NO MURDER

Boniel lashed at the investigators for “intentionally fabricating” the statement attributed to his cousin to establish by circumstantial evidence that Gisela is already dead to support their premature filing of parricide complaint.

Boniel pointed out that the complaint was filed despite the fact that “there is no dead body of Gisela found by them.”

Boniel further stressed that “the circumstantial pieces of evidence squeezed from unwilling witnesses under duress are not enough to supplant the need for corpus delicti in the prosecution of such as the heinous crime of parricide.”

The search for Mayor Gisele’s body will end on Monday unless something substantial will surface during the dive retrieval operations, according to Lapu-lapu City Police Chief, Police Senior Superintendent  Rommel Cabanot.

Parricide complaint was filed by the PNP Police Regional Office 7 against Nino Rey Boniel, Riolito Boniel (pump boat operator), Randel Lupas (driver), Willy Hoylar, Restituto Magoncia, Jr.( bodyguards of BM Boniel).

Boniel is now detained at the Talibon District Jail while Magoncia and Hoylar are under police custody at the Talibon Police Station lock-up jail awaiting the resolution of their petition for writ of habeas corpus filed before RTC Branch 16 Presiding Judge Sylva Aguirre-Paderanga.

Lupas and Riolito Boniel are still under custody at the PNP Regional Office in Cebu City. The four other respondents in the parricide complaint – Lubo Boniel (owner of the pump boat), Allan Delos Reyes, Jr. (companion of Boniel on board the pumpboat), Wilson Revilles Hoylar and Brian Boniel Saycon are still at large.

Whether it was a crime of passion or a crime caused by financial problems, the gruesome circumstances surrounding the death of Bien Unido Mayor Gisela still remains under the realm of speculation. (Chito M. Visarra)