Sandra Cam walks free from PNP Custodial Center

MANILA, Philippines — Former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) board member Sandra Cam walked free from detention on Monday night, hours after she and her son were acquitted in connection with the killing of former Batuan, Masbate vice mayor Charlie Yuson III.

Philippine National Police chief Gen. Rodolfo Azurin Jr. said Cam was released from the PNP Custodial Center after undergoing a medical examination.

In a separate message on Viber, PNP public information ofice chief Col. Redrico Maranan said Cam left the detention facility at around 10:52 p.m.

To ensure her safety, Azurin ordered Headquarters Support Service director Brig. Gen. Mark Pespes to have HSS personnel escort Cam to her house.

“Mahirap ho ‘yan, baka biglang sa harap ng bahay nila ay may mangyaring masama ay kasalanan na naman po ng pulis (It’s better to be safe. Something bad might happen in front of her house, and the police will be blamed),” Azurin said in an interview over dzRH.

‘Wanting evidence’

Despite proof that Cam and her cohorts had the motive to kill Yuson, the prosecution “failed to show that the accused… performed overt acts leading to the implementation of the alleged plan to kill… Yuson,” Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 42 Judge Dinnah Aguila-Topacio ruled in her 56-page decision acquitting Cam, her son Marco Martin and co-accused Nelson Cambaya.

The judge is the wife of controversial lawyer Ferdinand Topacio.

Then Batuan vice mayor Yuson was shot dead at an eatery in Sampaloc, Manila on Oct. 9, 2019 (not Oct. 10 as earlier reported) in what his family described as a politically motivated attack.

Yuson’s son Charmax Jan had just defeated Cam’s son Marco Martin in the 2019 Batuan mayoralty race.

Alleged gunmen Junel Gomez, Bradford Solis, Juanito de Luna and Rigor dela Cruz were arrested in a Nissan Urvan minutes after the shooting and yielded several firearms during a dragnet operation along Pedro Gil street in Paco, Manila.

With on-the-ground testimonies from residents about threats from Cam’s camp, the prosecution proved a “pattern and motive through testimonial evidence of prior threats on the life of the deceased before the slay,” the judge said, citing one case when Martin and his armed men, while onboard speedboats, allegedly harassed Yuson and his supporters.

But other testimonies would prove “fatal to the prosecution’s theory,” the judge noted, making a dent on their bid to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

Topacio said the prosecution “strongly relied” on a witness who claimed to have heard Cam ordering Cambaya, then a councilor, to look for a hired assassin to kill Yuson during a meeting at a resort in Batuan in September 2018, a year before the killing.

Cambaya became acting vice mayor after Yuson rose to become mayor when the latter’s son Charmax went into hiding due to an illegal firearms case.

For the court, Cambaya’s alleged reaction, “nodding his head and running his fingers through his hair,” was not enough to establish conspiracy.

As for prosecution witnesses identifying De Luna and Gomez as among members of Cam’s camp, the judge said “mere companionship or association is not indicative of conspiracy.”

Fatal

In the eyes of the court, what “proved fatal” to the prosecution’s bid to prove guilt was the physical evidence that failed to connect the suspects to the killing.

“The slugs and cartridges recovered at the crime scene did not match the firearms recovered from the alleged gunmen,” the judge said.

The failure to cross-match the slugs with the firearms could be explained by a plot to switch the guns used to kill Yuson with another set of firearms and transfer them to another vehicle driven by an alleged lookout in order to confuse authorities, according to a prosecution witness who was the partner of the alleged lookout.

But Topacio dismissed the testimony as “hearsay,” adding that the prosecution did not present in court the alleged lookout.

The prosecution also failed to present a gunpowder residue test or fingerprints to prove that the gunmen fired the shots.

“The evidence for the prosecution has been weighed by the standards set forth above, and after a careful review, was found wanting,” the judge said.

While Cam, her son and Cambaya were acquitted and ordered released from detention, the cases against the alleged gunmen were sent to the archives pending their arrest to face trial. They have been at large since warrants were issued for their arrest. – Marc Jayson Cayabyab