Maguindanao Massacre NBI experts can’t testify

MANILA, Philippines - The judge handling the 2009 Maguindanao massacre case did not allow the prosecution panel to present as witnesses two videographers from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) as they were not part of the list of people initially allowed to testify in court.

During Wednesday’s hearing, Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221 barred the prosecution panel from presenting Edgar Panlapi and Joseph David as witnesses.

The two were supposed to verify the authenticity of a video showing the forensic examination conducted on a phone recovered from Cynthia Oquendo-Ayon, one of the massacre victims.

Solis-Reyes agreed on the position of defense counsel Sigfrid Fortun, who noted that the videographers were not part of an omnibus order that allowed Oquendo-Ayon’s sister and two NBI forensic experts to testify in court.

She decided not to allow the videographers to testify, saying their testimony were not indispensable since the text messages recovered from the phone of Oquendo-Ayon have already been testified upon by the victim’s sister and the two NBI forensic experts.