Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas F. Ople today received the latest developments from the Philippine Consulate General in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, in the case of Mr. Sef Gonzales, a naturalized Filipino-Australian in custody at the Silverwater Detention Centre, accused of murdering his parents and sister in 2001.

Last night, 18 August 2003, lawyers of the Benjamin and Khoury Law Firm, the court-appointed defense lawyer of Mr. Sef Gonzales, re-engaged their client after withdrawing from his case earlier in the afternoon.  They walked out of the Central Local Court after New South Wales’ Court of Appeal unanimously decided against granting Mr. Sef Gonzales permission to access his family’s estate to fund his legal defense.

Ms. Deborah Sweeney, the presiding magistrate, had ruled that Mr. Sef  Gonzales’ case proceed despite a four (4)-week waiting period on his application for Legal Aid.

New South Wales’ Crown Prosecutor Mark Tedeschi, QC, is pursuing the case against Mr. Sef Gonzales, 22, for allegedly murdering his father Teodoro, 46, mother Loiva, 43, and younger sister Clodine, 18, during the late afternoon and early evening hours of 10 July 2001, after disagreements initially stemming from his poor grades at Macquarie University and choice of girlfriend.  Mr. Sef Gonzales’ defense is predicated upon a race hate message painted in his family’s home and his supposedly engaging the services of a prostitute at a local brothel on the night of his family’s murders.

The late Teodoro Gonzales, an émigré lawyer from Baguio City, had brought his family to Australia in 1991 to establish a law practice specializing in immigration law.

“It grieves me greatly to hear of our kababayans’ lives taking such twists in far away lands even when they have chosen to emigrate.  I hope that the on-going legal proceedings in New South Wales ascertain the truth in the brutal killings of the Gonzales family in a timely fashion, and that due process be rendered,” Secretary Ople said.

With the abolition of the death penalty in Australia, a conviction on charges of murder results in a sentence of life imprisonment.

“I have directed Consul General Maria Zenaida A. Collinson of the Philippine Consulate General in Sydney to closely monitor the progression of this case and to continue representing the interests of the members of the Gonzales family to the utmost,” the Secretary added.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and the Philippine Consulate General in Sydney are acting upon developments in Australia, and maintaining contact with Mr. Sef Gonzales’ next of kin the Philippines.  END