After languishing in jail for more than four years, the accused in the robbery case with double homicide of couple Helmut Malinka and Eutiquia Missiona of Laya, Baclayon town in April 2007 was ordered released after the court granted her bail for her temporary release. In a court order dated January 20, 2012, Regional Trial Court, Branch 50 Executive Presiding Judge Dionisio R. Calibo, Jr. ordered the release from the Bohol District Jail, the suspect Virginia Saluta, after posting bail of P20,000. Although “ for humanitarian reasons” was cited in the order granting bail, counsel for the defense lawyer Lord R. Marapao IV said “that the legal implication of the grant of bail could be that the evidence for the prosecution, which consists of circumstantial evidence only, is inherently weak.”

Saluta, a resident of Pulang Yuta, Dimiao, Bohol, was the lone suspect indicted in the case after the Provincial Prosecution Office conducted a preliminary investigationand Field Information in court on May 28, 2007. The prosecutors failed to identify the names of her alleged conspirators who took p[art in the robbery-slay of the Malinka couple inside their home in Baclayon. Belongings of the couple lost in the incident amounted to P267,000 itemized s laptop computer, DVD and audio player, three untis cellphones and assorted jewelries and valuable items. Lawyer Marapao IV, who offered his free legal (pro bono) assistance to the accused earlier filed on October 11, 2011 an Urgent Omnibus Motion to dismiss and/or admit Accused-Movant to Bail and to have her Medical Examinations.

The counsel for the accused cited in his motion that “circumstantial evidence advanced by the plaintiff is inherently weak ans susceptible of various interpretations an din line with the sound pronouncement of the Supreme Court (Aoa vs. people (547 SCRA 311), such (circumstantial) evidence does not fulfill the test of moral certainty and is not sufficient to convict the accused.” Court records show that there was no compliance by the prosecution on the Order of the Court on October 27, 2011 for it to comment on the Urgent Omnibus Motion filed by the accused a hearing for the prayer for dismissal or grant bail was set on January 20, 2011, while allowing the accused to undergo medical check-up at a government hospital.

While in detention, accused complained of a chronic erosive gastritis, which was certified by the attending medical nurse on duty. On the schedule Jan. 20 hearing, only the accused and her counsel Atty. Lord marapao IV appeared and conspicuously absent was the private prosecutor. However, received by the Court, a day before the hearing was a manifestation by the private prosecutor Atty. Dodelon Sabijon which did not comment on the amount of bail sought by the movant-accused. The defense further manifested that up to now, the BJMP has not brought the accused to the hospital for medical examination despite the earlier court order granting thr request for medical check-up. Accused Saluta was ordered released last Friday after the cash bond of P20,000 was approved by the court and was paid shown in a Certificate of Cash Bond Deposit issued on the same day.