Investigators looking into the murder of lawyer Richard William Sison learned that there was a man who indeed managed to take footage or photos when the lawyer was ambushed along V. Sotto St. in barangay Tinago two weeks ago.
CCPO director Sr. Supt. Patrocinio Comendador told reporters yesterday that they are now in contact with the acquaintances of this man to help them convince him to give them a copy of the footage.
The police believe that the footage might have the description of the assailant and his driver as well as their motorcycle.
“Naay tawong nakakuha but he is hesitant, he is not in Cebu right now and we are trying to convince him to help us,” Comendador said.
Comendador earlier assured anyone who can provide the police with footage or photos of the actual shooting will not be identified or required to execute an affidavit or appear in court proceedings.
The police surmise the perpetrators are not from Cebu City but are very familiar with the area.
Meanwhile, the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-7 tasked to extract the SMS messages from the cell phone of Sison will have to bring the phone to their main office in Manila as they do not have the needed software.
Superintendent Rex Derilo said there are cell phones that cannot be accessed by their software because of the upgrades done to them.
The cell phone will be brought to CIDG’s Anti Transnational Crime Division, Computer Crime Section as it is more equipped with computers like those being used by federal investigation units of the United States.
“This is to obtain information from the SMS. From there we can back track the people nga iyang mga nakaestorya before siya namatay,” Derilo said.
The message inbox was reportedly empty when it was turned over to them three days after the ambush, but Comendador said there might still be messages in the phone.
The cell phone was reportedly taken from Sison’s body in the hospital but it was only turned over to them three days later. — Edwin Ian Melecio/BRP