Witness testifies Wapille didn't shoot Damalerio

The defense panel of the murder case filed against former policeman Guillermo Wapille for the alleged slay of Zamboanga journalist Edgar Damalerio presented yesterday a former seminarian who testified before the court that the accused didn't gun down Damalerio. "When I saw Wapille, I knew he was not the gunman," Bernardo Regis told Regional Trial Court branch 19 after he narrated his visit to Camp Abelon to personally check how Wapille, who was currently detained there, looked like.

Regis said prior to paying Wapille a visit he met PO3 Orlen Leyte, a former seminarian like him, in a birthday party of another colleague. This was on the morning of May 26, 2002. During their meeting, he said, he told Leyte he was there when Damalerio, editor of the Zamboanga Scribe based in Pagadian City and a broadcaster of radio station dxKP, was gunned down by a motorcycle-riding gunman while Damalerio was onboard a jeepney on May 13, 2002.

Regis narrated he was supposed to meet a certain Tauro at the legislative building of the city hall where he worked for the office of the Vice Mayor. But since Tauro was nowhere to be found inside the building, he waited for him outside of the edifice. It was past 7pm.

Regis said he was sitting at his parked motorcycle facing the street when he saw a slow moving yellow jeep with three people in it including the driver. Tailing was a black motorcycle, which he said was 15 to 20 meters behind.

He testified that when the motorcycle passed by him, he had established an eye-to-eye contact with the rider at the back of the driver.

After that, he heard a gunshot. But it was only during the second burst of gunshot that he saw the "backrider" shooting the driver of the yellow jeep.

Moments later, two policemen, which witnesses identified as Leonido Buhisan and Arnel Buhisan, arrived while people including Regis were already milling at the crime scene.

Defense lawyer Honorato Hermosisima, Jr. asked Regis why he knew these policemen. The witness told the court he knew Arnel as he had already met him before while Leonido was a classmate in college.

During the cross-examination, prosecution lawyer Fernando Gubalane asked the witness why he did not volunteer to tell Leonido, whom he said was a classmate in college, that he knew who the gunman was. Regis explained that Arnel only asked the two men carrying the victim, while Leonido was four meters away from him. He added Leonido was not able to see him, hence he was not asked. He said he was told there were already two suspects identified - Wapille and Ronnie Kilme.

Regis told Leyte that the photo of Kilme which was carried by a local paper four or five days after the shooting looked like that of the gunman.

The witness said it was Leyte who advised him to see Wapille in Camp Abelon. And there upon seeing the suspect, on the afternoon of that same day, he confirmed, "Wapille wasn't the gunman." Regis described the gunman to be tall, decent-looking, and with white complexion while Wapille, he said, was "not good looking".- Liv G. Campo