LAGAWE, Ifugao – The lawyer of the suspect in last April’s killing of American Peace Corps volunteer Julia Campbell was fined P100 for causing a delay in the trial the other day.
Judge Esther Piscozo-Flor of Banaue Regional Trial Court Branch 34, who is hearing the murder case against Juan Donald Duntugan, slapped defense lawyer Pedro Mayam-o with the fine for skipping the hearing scheduled last Monday afternoon without informing the court.
The case, still in its pre-trial stage, could have gone directly to the trial stage during the next hearing on Aug. 20-21 had Mayam-o been present in the hearing.
“He had been here the whole morning and had not intimated to me that he would not be attending the afternoon session of this hearing,” Flor said.
Both the prosecution – led by provincial prosecutor Joseph Tumapang and the four-man private prosecutorial team from the Baguio-based Agranzamendez Liceralde Gallardo and Associates law firm – and Mayam-o, as defense counsel, spent the entire Monday morning going through the mountain of evidence to be presented by both sides during the trial proper.
The non-appearance of Mayam-o, a former Ifugao provincial board member, almost led to another postponement of the trial had lawyer Eugene Ballitang, the collaborating defense counsel, not been there.
Ballitang was forced to attend the hearing after Tumapang informed him of the situation.
Mayam-o reportedly told his colleagues that he had to attend a relative’s burial and that Ballitang would take his place. But Ballitang told the court that he was unaware of the arrangement.
Last April 8, Campbell, 40, was declared missing in the Banaue village of Batad. Her body was half-buried in a canal weeks later.
After almost three weeks, the 25-year-old Duntugan surrendered to authorities and owned up to the crime.
Duntugan, however, later pleaded not guilty to the murder charge, claiming he did not kill Campbell on purpose and that he mistook her for a neighbor with whom he had a grudge.