LAPU-LAPU CITY, Cebu—Bohol provincial board member Niño Rey Boniel has tendered his resignation, a year after he was put in detention to face allegations that he killed his wife.

A first following his arrest on June 2017, Boniel said he chose to speak to the media for the public to hear his side.

Boniel said he wanted to focus on a religious ministry at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center, where he is currently detained.

He said it wasn’t an easy decision, attributing to his long years of service as a public official.

Boniel is the prime suspect in the kidnapping and killing of Mayor Gisela Boniel, whose body was suspected to have been dumped off the sea of Lapu-Lapu City.

He did not enter any plea during the arraignment of the parricide case lodged against him.

As a matter of procedure, Lapu-Lapu City RTC Branch 54 entered the not-guilty plea for the accused.

Defense lawyer Gerardo Carillo said that an earlier resolution of the Department of Justice (DOJ) on granting its Petition for Review and withdrawing the cases against the Bohol official and his cohorts is a clear sign that evidence against his client are weak.

In a resolution dated March 22, signed by Justice undersecretary Reynante Orceo, the DOJ reversed and set aside the resolution filed June 2017 by the City Prosecutor’s Office of Lapu-Lapu City, which indicted Boniel of parricide.

The resolution cited that the Lapu-Lapu City prosecutor’s Office erroneously concluded the existence of probable cause.

The private prosecutor filed a motion for reconsideration.

Former Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II reversed the DOJ’s previous ruling on the petition for review.

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“We therefore find that the information for Parricide sufficiently alleges that the offense was committed within the waters of Lapu-Lapu City where Niño Boniel killed his wife and thereafter dumped the body thereat,” read a portion of the resolution dated March 27 signed by Aguirre.

Alleged conspirators Restituto Magoncia Jr. and Wilfredo Hoylar, indicted for murder, also did not enter their plea before the court.

Wearing their bullet-proof vests, Roilito Boniel and Randel Lupas pleaded not guilty. They are both under the witness protection program of the DOJ.

After the arraignment, the pre-trial conference followed immediately.

The prosecution boasted of an "overwhelming" set of evidence, including 45 witnesses, which they will present in court starting September.

The complainant’s lawyer, Amando Ligutan, is confident that there is enough proof to convict the respondents even if the former local chief executive has been missing.

Gisela’s family was also present during the arraignment. They said they haven’t really moved on yet even if the "wheels of justice started rolling for their beloved Gisela."