Ivler asks QC judge to inhibit from his murder case

Accused murderer Jason Ivler has asked the Quezon City judge handling his case to inhibit from the proceedings for allegedly being “bias and partial." Ivler said Judge Bayani Vargas of the QC Regional Trial Court Branch 219 manifested his bias when he “dilly-dallied" on his request for hospitalization and denied his waiver not to attend the hearing last March 23. In a seven-page motion for inhibition filed by his lawyers, Ivler claimed that more than a year after he filed his urgent request for hospitalization, Judge Vargas has yet to make a definitive ruling on it. “Instead of granting the motion, or at least making a definitive ruling thereon, the presiding judge, dilly-dallied, and later allowed accused to undergo a measly checkup at a designated hospital," Ivler alleged in his motion. Ivler asked for hospitalization due to the gunshot wound he sustained when he engaged arresting government agents in a firefight in his mother’s home in Quezon City last year. “Accused’s gunshot wound was expectedly left untreated due, among others, to the absence of the accused’s hospital records at the [court designated] hospital. The colostomy was also not reversed," the motion said. Ivler also said Judge Vargas’ partiality was evident during the March 23 hearing when his waiver not to attend that day’s proceedings was denied. He said the court denied the waiver on the “flimsy" ground that the prosecution has not agreed to it. As a result of the judge’s denial of the waiver, Ivler and his mother, Marlene Aguilar, vented out their frustration in open court, with Aguilar even challenging Judge Vargas to a fistfight. Aguilar’s action prompted Judge Vargas to rule her guilty of indirect contempt and ordered her to pay a P20,000 fine. Aguilar has yet to pay the fine as she has filed a motion for reconsideration asking the court to reverse its earlier order. “Regrettably, the hasty ruling on the contempt matter arouses suspicion that it was not based on the merits. Accused accordingly believes that in the end, he will have no chance, even if he has a meritorious defense, to convince the presiding judge that he is not guilty of the murder charge in this case. To erase this suspicion, the presiding judge is entreated to disqualify himself from the case," Ivler’s motion read. The court set the hearing on Ivler and mother’s motions on June 1, Wednesday. Ivler is facing murder charges in connection with the killing of Renato Ebarle Jr., son of a former Malacañang official, during a traffic altercation on Nov. 18, 2009 in Quezon City. - KBK, GMA News