Defense to ask news reporter to testify

The defense lawyer of suspected gunman Edgar Belandres yesterday said he might summon a reporter of a local daily to testify in court about his news item stating that the gunman, who shot dead photojournalist Allan Dizon of The FREEMAN, was wearing a helmet.

Danilo Tan said reporter Chito Aragon co-wrote a news story, published in CDN the day after the killing, stating that the assailant wore a helmet when he shot Dizon last November 27 near a mall at the north reclamation area.

Aragon could not write this bit of information without getting it from someone he may have interviewed earlier and this someone could be one of the two female cigarette vendors near the scene of the killing, said Tan.

Tan said the defense was supposed to present its sixth witness, Pilar Romero, one of the cigarette vendors. So he planned to summon Aragon to testify also and shed light on his news source, which could be Romero herself of any other, he said.

Another defense lawyer Pedro Leslie Salva said he already requested Regional Trial Court Judge Ireneo Gako Jr. to subpoena Romero who, at this time, is too "shy" to testify.

If Romero is the witness who told Aragon that the gunman was wearing a helmet then the defense could discredit prosecution witness Faustiniano Doller, said the defense lawyers.

Doller had testified before that when the gunman removed his helmet, he identified him as Belandres.

But Yap said it would be impossible for a gunman, who normally takes effort in concealing his face, to simply remove his helmet just to be identified by anyone.

The next hearing is scheduled next week.