LAGAWE, Ifugao – Prosecutors presented last Monday two more Americans as witnesses in the trial of the self-confessed suspect in the murder of United States Peace Corps volunteer Julia Campbell who was killed on April 8, 2007.
The hearing resumed at the Banaue Regional Trial Court (RTC) here, even as court sources expect the hearings to be completed this June.
Provincial prosecutor Joseph Tumapang presented American witnesses Eric Young and David Berry testified in the continuation of the murder trial of Juan Donald Duntugan, self-confessed killer of Campbell.
Young, a tourist, who like Campbell, was vacationing in Banaue at the time, testified that he saw the 40-year-old US peace corps volunteer from Fairfax, Virginia, last April 7 or a day before she was reported missing.
Berry, a member of the search and rescue team, likewise verified that the body that they retrieved from a shallow ditch several feet below Duntugan’s residence was that of Campbell.
ABS-CBN correspondent Jay Ruiz, who was expected to take the witness stand the other day for cross-examination by the defense counsel led by lawyer Pedro Mayam-o, again failed to appear in court.
Ruiz sent a note that his appearance before the court should be approved by their ABS-CBN news director Maria Ressa and that any subpoena ordering his attendance should be addressed to her.
He is expected to appear in the next hearing on Feb. 4 and 5 together with the last witness Francis Binalit to be presented by the prosecution.
Banaue Judge Ester Piscoso Flor, meanwhile, adjourned yesterday’s scheduled hearing due to lack of witnesses to be presented.
The testimony of Young and Berry, like that of previous prosecution witnesses, was intended to further bolster the case against the 25-year-old Duntugan, a native of La Trinidad, Benguet, who is married to a resident of Batad, Banaue, where the incident occurred.
The interests of Campbell’s family in the trial are being represented by the four-man private prosecution team from the Baguio City-based Agranzamendez Liceralde Gallardo law firm led by lawyer Reynaldo Agranzamendez Sr., law dean of the University of the Cordilleras.
“The prosecution has already presented most of its witnesses. Now it will be the chance of the defense to do likewise. Based on how the trial has been going on, we’ll expect a verdict in the first quarter next year at the earliest and June at the latest,” said Flor.
Flor admitted that so much is at stake in the outcome of the case, especially the relations between the Philippine government and the United States in so far as how the justice system works in the country.
Earlier, US Ambassador Kristie Kenney praised the Philippine judicial system’s handling of the Campbell slay case, saying she was pleased with what she had learned so far.
Among those who have given their testimonies during the previous hearings were Campbell’s mother Linda, a 14-year-old youth who testified seeing Duntugan at the crime scene, the masseuse contacted by Campbell before she was reported missing, and several expert witnesses from the police and other sources whose testimony was intended to show that Duntugan had willfully killed the peace corps volunteer.
Campbell, who was wrapping up a two-year tour of duty in Bicol as an English teacher at the time, decided to have a vacation in Banaue before going home to the US.
After arriving in Lagawe, the 40-year-old Campbell then contracted a masseuse to see her in her rented cottage in Batad village.
But after she failed to appear for her scheduled massage with the masseuse, the later then reported her missing, thus starting a huge search and rescue mission to roll.
Campbell’s body was later discovered half buried in a shallow ditch.
A few weeks later, Duntugan surrendered and admitted killing Campbell. He said the incident was an accident.