Witness not sure who shot journalist dead

After two days of being grilled in the witness stand, a defense witness in the Damalerio case admitted before the court that he was not certain if the man who killed journalist Edgar Damalerio was Ronnie Kilme.

"I was not certain that the gunman was Kilme," Bernardo Regis said, adding that Kilme's photo, which he saw in the local paper, appeared to be fatter.

Regis said this after Regional Trial Court Branch 19 judge Ramon Codilla Jr. asked him after prosecution counsel Dixon Fuentes rested his cross-examination on the witness.

During the direct examination last Wednesday, Regis told the court that it was Kilme he saw shooting Damalerio as he was driving his jeep.

Regis said he was just four meters away from the crime scene and that he had eye contact with Kilme when the motorcycle he was riding passed by.

Regis said even if the incident happened at past 7:00 p.m. he could see well, as the area was well-lit with two lamp posts. He claimed he was sitting on his parked motorcycle when he heard a gunshot, and only during the second gunshot that he saw the passenger on the motorcycle shooting at the driver of the jeep. Then the motorcycle sped away.

The prosecution on Wednesday asked the court to extend the cross-examination on Thursday, as it wanted to get documents needed for Regis' cross-examination. But since these documents had to come from Pagadian City, it would take time to have them here and the prosecution had to settle without them.

When asked who spent for his transportation and other expenses while he is staying here, Regis told the court it was defense lawyer Flavio Cordero Jr.

The witness also said he did not inform policeman Leonido Buhisan that he saw the shooting even if the latter was his classmate in college. It was Buhisan, along with Arnel Buhisan, who responded to the shooting alarm.

Regis earlier said he heard Leonido ask the crowd if they saw the assailant. He said he did not volunteer the information as he did not know the victim as of yet.

It was only on May 26, during a birthday party, when he had the chance to meet another policeman and a fellow former seminarian Orlen Leyte, who advised him to see Wapille, who at that time was already detained at Camp Abelon.

And when he saw Wapille at the camp, he knew he was not the shooter, he said during Wednesday's direct examination.

"It could not be possible for the jeep to move that slow since Damalerio was already warned by her wife that there were people tailing him," Fuentes said

Damalerio, an editor of the Zamboanga Scribe based in Pagadian City and a broadcaster of dxKP, was gunned down last May 13, 2002. - Wenna A. Berondo and Liv G. Campo