A MOTORCYCLE-for-hire driver positively identified a radio blocktimer as being responsible for causing the Feb. 6 tsunami scare in Cebu City last year.
The 29-year-old driver Ryan Pedrosa, who earlier recanted his testimony, appeared yesterday in court and identified Danilo Cogtas as the same person on board a motorcycle who shouted to passersby that a tsunami will hit Cebu City.
Pedrosa affirmed the veracity of his statements on a joint-affidavit which he and another motorcycle-for-hire driver executed against Cogtas.
Cogtas’ lawyer Ruphil Bañoc asked the court for enough time to cross examine Pedrosa whom he didn’t expect to attend the proceedings before Judge Anatalio Necesario of the Municipal Trial Court in Cities Branch 2.
”It was the first time my client saw that witness. We will know if he (Pedrosa) is telling a lie during the cross-examination,” Bañoc told reporters after the hearing.
The court scheduled the cross-examination of Pedrosa on May 16. Cogtas, an accredited broadcaster handling a program in radio dyRB, was charged with “causing tumult and public disturbance.”
If convicted, he faces one month to six months imprisonment.
Cogtas claimed that he wasn’t the person seen using a megaphone to warn people about the tsunami.
“This is the first time I saw the face of that witness (Pedrosa). I believe someone is behind him,” he said in Cebuano.
He admitted he mentioned the word “tsunami” while he was talking to his son on the cellphone. However, he said he didn’t have any intention to cause panic among the public.
Cogtas was overheard telling his son not to be complacent and to run because a tsunami was reportedly coming.
He said the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) should be asked to explain since it was the government agency who talked about the tsunami.
In their joint affidavit, witnesses Pedrosa and Roldan Espina said they went to barangay Pasil on board their motorcycles to verify reports that a tsunami had hit the shoreline in downtown Cebu City.
“When we arrived somewhere near the vicinity of Pasil fishport, we noticed a surge of people running away from the place, some dragging along with them little children,” the two witnesses said.
They said they saw a man on a motorcycle screaming that a tsunami was coming.
Espina and Pedrosa said the man wore a big ID card around his neck and a dark sleeveless vest “like the ones worn by media people.”
The two witnesses then returned to barangay Lahug where they work as motorcycle-for-hire drivers. When the two men saw Cogtas’ photo in a tabloid, they identified him as the man who caused the panic.
The two witnesses earlier recanted their testimonies against Cogtas but their affidavit of desistance failed to stop the prosecutors’ office from elevating the case in court. Reporter Ador Vincent Mayol