Army troopers have intensified their search for the Aeta, whose identity Garcia declined to reveal so as not to jeopardize operations, after German Siegfried Wittman tested negative for powder burns and a polygraph test indicated he had not lied in his testimony on the fatal shooting of his American friend Brian Thomas Smith on Mt. Pinatubo’s slopes last Jan. 30.
Wittman said in his statement to police that a "small, black man" had shot Wittman in the back. Wittman, a tourist staying in Angeles City, sustained gunshot wounds also reportedly inflicted by the Aeta as he fled, but investigators had included him in their list of suspects for his alleged "questionable testimonies."
Army Col. John Bolhayon, commander of the 703rd Infantry Brigade and one of the leaders in the rescue of Wittman, had expressed belief that the Aeta suspect could be the same one who had been purged and disarmed by the New People’s Army for involvement in crimes.
The Aeta was reported to have joined a bandit group called Salaginto operating in areas near the slopes of Mt. Pinatubo.
"We are not saying that we already have pinned down the suspect. The former NPA Aeta is just one probability, but it is also possible that another Aeta could have done it. Wittman’s description of the Aeta he saw on the slopes was just too vague," Garcia said.
Garcia, however, said that police counterparts investigating Smith’s killing are expected to gather more evidence either to build up or dismiss Wittman as a suspect.
Probers had doubted Wittman’s testimonies, particularly his estimate that the shot that killed Smith was fired from 200 meters away. They said that while Wittman claimed that the Aeta seemed to have used an improvised rifle, it would take a sharpshooter using sophisticated arms to hit Smith with a single shot from such a distance.