Court stops embalmer from taking witness stand in Maguindanao massacre trial
Prosecutors in the Maguindanao massacre case on Wednesday were frustrated in their attempt to present as a witness an embalmer who was supposed to have found the cell phone of one of the victims who had sent out text messages appealing to the Ampatuans to stop the killings.
Jonito Puton, 37, an assistant embalmer from General Santos City, was not able to give his testimony because of a series of misunderstandings between the prosecutor on one side and the defense panel and the judge on the other.
The prosecuting team has claimed that Puton, who embalmed the body of victim Cynthia Oquendo-Ayon, had found Ayon’s cellphone on which was stored the text messages that Ayon had sent to a lawyer friend just before she was killed.
Defense lawyers objected to Puton’s being presented as a witness, arguing that he was listed only in the February 14 pre-trial order which involved six accused. He was not named as a witness in the other pre-trial orders involving the other accused.
When prosecutor Olivia Torrevillas told defense lawyer Sigfrid Fortun “If that is your line of argument, then you have no business here,” Fortun and some of the other defense lawyers walked out with the permission of Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes.
Reyes, who allowed Puton to testify, then got into an argument with Torrevillas.
The prosecutor insisted that the embalmer would be testifying on the alleged conspiracy of all the accused, not just six of them, to massacre the 57 victims in Ampatuan, Maguindanao, on Nov. 23, 2009.
Reyes objected, pointing out that Puton was named as a prosecution witness only in the February14 pre-trial order. Philip C. Tubeza
