3rd defense witness presented in Dizon case

The third defense witness in the murder case of The FREEMAN photojournalist Allan Dizon yesterday tried to discredit the prosecution's two witnesses by testifying that he saw where they were when Dizon was murdered last November 27.

Construction worker Alberto Flores took the witness stand yesterday and told the court that an hour before the incident happened he was drinking with a friend in a store "500 to 600 meters away" from the cellphone shop in North Reclamation area where Dizon was shot. With that distance he told the court it was impossible to see what was happening in the shop, plus the carwash blocked the view.

Flores added that in the next store just two meters away he saw Justiniano Doller and Epifanio Barcuma also drinking. He said he knew them as they were friends but "not close".

After three successive gunshots, Flores said Doller and Barcuma ran to where the shots came from. He said it took him two minutes to walk to the carwash area where Dizon was later found lying in a pool of blood. But he said he could not see the victim at the time and did not know it was Dizon.

During the cross-examination when RTC Branch 5 presiding judge Ireneo Gako Jr. asked why it only took Flores two minutes to reach the carwash when he earlier testified that the distance of the place was about 500 to 600 meters, the witness said it was only his estimate.

Flores was also made to estimate the distance of the shop to the corner of the street and from there to the store where he was. When the two distances were added it summed up to about 70 meters, very far from his earlier claim. When the prosecution objected Gako only said the witness, being able to reach high school, could know metric estimates.

After that Flores said he went back to the store and continued drinking. He said that Barcuma and Doller never came back.

Both Doller and Barcuma earlier testified they saw Edgar Belandres shoot Dizon from across the crime scene.