Ex- Bohol board member Niño Rey Boniel pleaded guilty to the accusation of killing his wife on June 17, 2017. This plea was done during a hearing at the sala of Judge Christine Muga-Abad of Regional Trial Court Branch 70 in Lapu-lapu City, yesterday, Feb. 8, 2022, according to multiple reports.
The former board member made the move under a plea bargaining agreement, the same reports say.
Boniel, during the hearing, confessed he killed his wife, Gisela Bendong-Boniel, and confirmed the pieces of evidence presented against him.
Moreover, Boniel’s cohorts, Wilfredo Hoylar, Restituto Magoncia, Allan Delos Reyes, and one other also pleaded guilty to the charges, according to the reports coming from Cebu City.
With the admission, the prosecutor agreed to change the charges from murder to homicide, thus reducing the sentence from life imprisonment to eight years and one day to 14 years in prison, the same reports add.
Boniel and his cohorts still face charges for serious illegal detention and kidnapping, according to Virgil Ligutan, the legal counsel of the family of Gisela Bendong-Boniel.
It can be remembered that, Gisella was reported to have been killed by her husband, Niño Rey, on June 17, 2017.
Purportedly, Gisella’s body was thrown into the waters off Lapu-lapu City. Until now, Gisela’s remains are not yet found.