Judge inhibits from Jason Ivler's case

The Quezon City judge handling the murder case against Jason Ivler had inhibited from the case to avoid creating an impression of partiality in the proceedings. In a four-page order, Judge Bayani Vargas of the QC Regional Trial Court Branch 219 granted the motion for inhibition filed by Ivler’s camp “in order not to create any impression of partiality in the further proceedings of this case, and to further preclude any suspicion of bias." Despite this, Vargas denied the defendant’s claim that he has shown conduct “indicative of arbitrariness or prejudice." “The Court believes that the grounds raised by movant accused in its motion are baseless. Movant accused failed to convincingly show the presiding judge's bias or prejudice," Vargas said. Vargas was the second judge who inhibited from the case after Branch 76 Presiding Judge Alexander Balut. Ivler was charged for the killing of Renato Victor Ebarle, son of a Malacañang official, during a traffic altercation on Nov. 18, 2009. He was arrested in January 2010 after engaging government agents in a shootout. In the same order, Vargas junked the appeal of Ivler’s mother, Marlene Aguilar-Pollard, to reverse his earlier decision ordering her to pay P20,000 as fine for indirect contempt. Vargas, in denying Aguilar-Pollard’s motion for reconsideration, stood by his earlier order that said he finds Aguilar-Pollard’s actuation during one hearing degrading. He was referring to the incident on April 15, 2011 when Aguilar-Pollard challenged him to a fistfight. Aguilar-Pollard challenged Vargas to a fistfight after the judge denied her son’s appeal to waive his right to attend the hearing last March 23, 2011. — KBK, GMA News