Shooting suspect pleads not guilty

The alleged gunman of Bantay Dagat project director Elpidio "Jojo" dela Victoria yesterday withdrew his motion asking Regional Trial Court judge Ireneo Lee Gako Jr. to inhibit from handling his case and pleaded not guilty to the charges.

After the interpreter read the accusatory portion of the information, SPO1 Marcial Ocampo was asked of his plea. Ocampo quickly answered in a loud voice that he is not guilty to the charges hurled against him.

A team of heavily armed jail guards personally headed by Talisay City jail warden Johnson Calub escorted Ocampo to the Palace of Justice building in Cebu City, while the accused was still wearing his complete police uniform.

The hearing of the case yesterday was intended for Ocampo's lawyers - Hector Fernandez and son, Vicente II - to present the policeman from the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, who allegedly overheard Gako say that if Ocampo's murder case would be assigned to him, he would convict the policeman.

It was the main reason why Ocampo, through his lawyers, filed a motion for inhibition thinking that Gako is already biased against him.

Gako has summoned CIDG's senior agent Delfin Bontuyan to appear before the court yesterday, because it was reportedly him who relayed the information to Ocampo.

But the defense lawyers have decided to withdraw their motion for inhibition, because according to them, they have read from an article in The Freeman that Bontuyan and the judge have already denied that they have issued such statements.

Bontuyan admitted that one time he told Ocampo that because of the strong evidence against him, he believed that if the case would be assigned to Gako he is sure that Ocampo will be convicted and sentenced to death.

"Dili si judge Gako ang miingon nga konbiktohon niya'g death penalty si Ocampo, ako'y miingon niya ana. Giingnan nako si Ocampo nga gikonbikto man gani to ni judge Gako og death ang nagpatay ni Allan Dizon, ikaw pa kaha nga lig-on kaayo ang mga ebidensya," said Bontuyan.

It was Gako who convicted Edgar "Dodong" Belandres and sentenced him to die by lethal injection for the shooting to death of The Freeman photojournalist Allan Dizon.

Ocampo's lawyers also withdrew the other motion filed by Ocampo seeking for the quashing of the information of the case that also asked the court to remand the case to the Talisay City Prosecutors' Office so that a preliminary investigation could be conducted.

Gako successfully convinced Ocampo's defense lawyers that it is an advantage for them if they would not avail of a preliminary investigation because the prosecution may not know immediately their arguments.

The defense wished to remand the case to the Talisay City Prosecutors' Office hoping that during the preliminary investigation, the prosecutor may reverse its earlier findings and it will dismiss the case for lack of merit.

But Gako - who used to be an assistant provincial fiscal before he was appointed as city fiscal of Lapulapu City for a long period of time - told the defense lawyers that it is very seldom that a fiscal would reverse its earlier findings.

Private prosecutor Fritz Quiñanola, a close relative of Dela Victoria, was happy of the development.

Gako quickly set the pre-trial of the case on May 17, where the lawyers of both parties may agree for some stipulation of facts before the start of the formal trial of the case. - Rene U. Borromeo