• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Bacolod City Lone District Rep. Alfredo Abelardo Benitez welcomed on Thursday (July 10) the ruling of the Makati City Prosecutor’s Office to dismiss the complaint filed against him by his estranged wife Dominique Lopez-Benitez under the Anti-Violence Against Women and Children (VAWC) Act.
The complaint was dismissed for insufficiency of evidence.
“Complainant failed to present sufficient evidence which would convince this Office that a reasonable certainty of conviction maybe achieved if this case is filed in court,” Assistant City Prosecutor Mikhail Maverick Tumacder said in a resolution approved by Acting City Prosecutor Melvin Matti.
In a statement, Benitez said that “after a thorough legal review, the prosecutor found no basis to charge me with economic abuse or psychological violence”.
He added that “the allegations against him were unsupported by evidence and did not meet the legal standards for criminal prosecution”.
Lopez-Benitez, who filed the complaint last April, accused Benitez of inflicting “severe mental and emotional distress” on her through the lawmaker’s supposed multiple extra-marital affairs.
“Throughout this process, I remained silent out of respect for my family and confidence in the legal system. This resolution confirms what I have maintained from the beginning – that the accusations were baseless and malicious,” Benitez said.
He added: “I ask that this matter now be laid to rest, and that innocent individuals, especially my children, be given the privacy to move forward away from this controversy”. | GB
