Ocampo counsels still questioning conviction

The lawyers of SP01 Marcial Ocampo, who was sentenced to imprisonment of up to 40 years for shooting dead Bantay Dagat project director Elpidio dela Victoria, have continued to insist on his innocence, saying that his conviction was highly questionable.

This developed as lawyer Hector Fernandez yesterday filed before the court a reply to the opposition submitted by private prosecutor Fritz Quiñanola, who strongly opposed Ocampo's motion for reconsideration of the court ruling.

Fernandez insisted that then Regional Trial Court Judge Ireneo Lee Gako Jr., who penned the 21-page decision convicting his client, erred when he failed to appreciate the testimonies of defense witnesses Wennie Tagalog and Andrade Comision.

Tagalog, a policeman assigned as gate guard of the Cebu Provincial Police Office, testified that he saw Ocampo still at the police camp in Lahug shortly before 3 p.m. on the day Dela Victoria was killed. Comision also testified that Ocampo visited his barbershop along Tres de Abril Street for a haircut from 3 p.m. to 3:20 p.m.

Fernandez said it could be impossible for his client to kill Dela Victoria because barangay San Roque, Talisay, where the Bantay Dagat official was shot, was too far from Tres de Abril. He insisted that Dela Victoria was killed while Ocampo was still at the barbershop.

Ocampo's lawyer argued that it is usual for a killer "to have waited and waited patiently for the arrival of the victim until he delivers the needed fatal shots, as common sense usually dictates."

Fernandez also insisted that the court should discredit the testimonies of prosecution witnesses Evan Echavez and Roberto Goc-ong.

According to him, Echavez is an asset of the Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group that filed the case against Ocampo.

Goc-ong was the driver of the taxi allegedly boarded by Ocampo after he shot Dela Victoria.

Gako's decision said: "The court would take judicial notice that from Tres de Abril Street, Cebu City to the scene of the crime, it would take to arrive there in not more 10 to 15 minutes via the SRP road."

He described the defense of Ocampo as very weak because his evidence was purely alibi and denial. - Rene U. Borromeo