Prosecutors present ex-cop’s lawyer as witness

CEBU CITY — In what might be considered a first in the country’s justice system, a defense lawyer in the murder case against a former policeman in connection with the 2002 killing of Pagadian City journalist Edgar Damalerio was presented as a prosecution witness during the first day of trial last Friday.

Flavio Cordero, 39, one of the legal counsels of PO1 Guillermo Wapille, was compelled to take the witness stand after the prosecution panel managed to convince Regional Trial Court Judge Ramon Codilla that it would present Cordero as its second witness.

Assistant city prosecutor Fernando Gubalane decided to present Cordero as a witness to prove that Edgar Ongue, the first prosecution witness, really resided in Barangay Pao, San Pablo, Zamboanga del Sur.

It was Ongue who tagged Wapille, a former Pagadian City policeman, as the one who gunned down Damalerio, a commentator of radio station dxKP, in Pagadian on May 13, 2002.

Escorted by armed bodyguards from the Department of Justice, Ongue testified that Wapille was his former neighbor in Barangay Pao.

But in a move to discredit Ongue’s statement, the defense panel headed by Honorato Hermosisima Jr. was quick to present certifications from the chairman and other leaders of Barangay Pao that Ongue had never resided in their village.

A list of registered voters secured by the defense panel from the barangay did not also contain Ongue’s name.

But Ongue said he was even a supporter of Cordero when the lawyer ran for mayor of San Pablo in 1995.

At the witness stand, Cordero confirmed that he ran for mayor in 1995, but denied knowing Ongue nor hiring him as a member of his campaign staff during the elections.

The prosecution panel failed to ask Ongue during its direct examination as to the possible motives behind the killing of Damalerio, managing editor of Zamboanga Scribe, a Pagadian City weekly.

The Supreme Court transferred the trial of the case to Cebu City because the lives of the witnesses would be in danger in Pagadian City.

Ongue claimed that unidentified men even tried to kidnap his family after he turned down the offer of Wapille’s family to back out as a prosecution witness.

Wapille is now detained at the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center here.

The prosecution plans to present Damalerio’s wife on the witness stand when the trial resumes on Wednesday. — Freeman News Service