Photos of children in device, but no Ellah Joy
There were ID-size photos of 100 children, ice cream, a tarsier, and cartoon characters of Iron Man and Sponge Bob Squarepants.
But there were no photos so far of 6-year-old homicide victim Ellah Joy Pique in the USB flash drive whose partial contents were viewed in court yesterday.
The images came from a storage device taken during the police raid of the house of murder suspect Bella Santos in Naga City.
About half of the contents of the USB were viewed.
The two-hour viewing was attended by Regional Trial Court Executive Judge Meinrado Paredes, officers of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Central Visayas (CIDG-7) and lawyers of Santos.
Th viewing will resume on July 11.
Santos, who stayed at home, said the USB was not hers but belonged to her technician.
Asked by Cebu Daily News why there were photos of children there, which could be damaging in view of allegations that Santos and co-accused British national Ian Griffiths were engaged in child pornography, the woman said the technican who owned the flash drive had a photography job taking ID photos.
Police earlier said there were more than 200 pornographic photos, including those of children in the USB seized in the raid.
That claim was first made in a press conference of Task Force Ellah Joy where police explained how they cracked the case before they filed charges against the couple.
Yesterday, the court used a computer set issued by the Supreme Court (SC) to view the USB contents.
The setup was operated by freelance information technology specialist Leo John Oliveros.
CIDG-7 lawyer Inocencio dela Cerna tried to stop the viewing of the USB.
He insisted that it be viewed on a software owned by the government and by an IT expert capable of detecting tampering or alteration of video footage or photos.
Dela Cerna is asking the court not to proceed since a preliminary investigation is being made by the prosecutor’s office on the charges filed against Santos and Griffiths before the prosecutors’ office.
But Judge Paredes, who issued the warrant for the raid on Santos’ house, said he wanted the USB contents reviewed for “transparency” in the case. He said he would not delay a ruling on the seized evidence.
Oliveros, the IT expert, was cross-examined by dela Cerna before the viewing started. He was also examined by Villagonzalo.
Oliveros said he knows how to preserve data on the USB and keep it from being modified.
At one point, he was asked by Villagonzalo to rate himself from one to 10 based on his experties on IT. Oliveros replied “eight.”
In a phone interview, Santos denied that the USB opened in court belonged to her.
On learning from supporters that the USB viewed by the court showed photos of children, Santos said it wasn’t hers.
She said her supporters told her that the USB was a white device.
Santos said it may have belonged to her computer technician Robert Presbitero, who is engaged in the photography business.
She said Presbitero may have left the USB inside her home.
“That is not my USB,” Santos told Cebu Daily News.
She said the USB which contained sex scenes between her and Griffiths is colored black and as big as a palm. She was referring to an external hard disk.
Her lawyer Rameses Villagonzalo said they are optimistic the USB taken by the CIDG-7 doesn’t contain anything that would implicate Santos and Griffiths.
“We are confident that its contents are clean. If there is something crazy there, it should be private,” Villagonzalo told reporters after the viewing.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has ordered the Bureau of Immigration to include Santos and Griffiths in its watchlist.
This means that whenever they travel abroad, their entry and departure from the Philippines will be closely monitored.
Santos and Griffiths face charges of kidnapping with homicide before the Cebu Provincial Prosecutors’ Office in relation to Ellah Joy’s murder last Feb. 8.
