Court inspects area where Illustrisimo was murdered

The court yesterday conducted an ocular inspection at the place inside the Capitol premises where former Santa Fe town mayor Rogelio Illustrisimo was gunned down last year.

A taxi driver who is a prosecution witness pinpointed the location near the Cebu provincial office of the Commission on Elections where he allegedly saw the suspect, Arnulfo Pigon Jr., holding a gun immediately after the victim was killed.

Garner Cole, a resident of barangay Labangon, told Regional Trial Court Branch 6 Judge Ester Veloso that after he dropped his passenger inside the Capitol compound in the morning of May 2, 2007, he heard a burst of gunshots.

He said he then saw a person near the trunk of a mango tree holding a handgun.

According to him, the man removed his sunglasses and placed it on his head before he ran away towards a nearby vacant lot. He claimed he recognized the armed person as Pigon.

Pigon, 38, was present during the hearing of his case yesterday.

Illustrisimo, a mayoralty candidate in the May 14, 2007 elections, had just emerged from the Comelec office after attending the hearing of his disqualification case when attacked by the gunman.

Cole said he could not forget the face of Pigon because he already saw him at the house of his uncle in barangay Basak, Mandaue City during a fiesta celebration in 2001, although such statement was not mentioned in his sworn statement.

A former policeman, Pigon claimed he was in Manila at the time of the shooting of Illustrisimo.

He used to be a member of the Special Weapons and Tactics team of the Mandaue City Police Office. – Rene U. Borromeo/LPM