Dutch Embassy monitors keenly court case on murder of activist

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—From the front row of the crowded courtroom, staff members of the Dutch Embassy led by the deputy head of mission, Jaco Beerends, watched the proceedings of the case of Dutch activist Wilhelmus Geertman who was murdered in Pampanga province three years ago.

“We are [here] as international observers of the court,” Beerends told the Inquirer on Monday. He just assumed his post over three months ago.

As in the previous four hearings, the embassy sent representatives to Regional Trial Court Branch 48 here in a show of unflagging commitment to monitor the case of Geertman, executive director of Alay Bayan-Luson Inc., a disaster response institution.

Geertman, 67, had just alighted from his car in the office’s driveway in L&S Subdivision here when the killer opened fire. He and his driver had come from a bank in Angeles City.

Fifth witness

The lawyer of Aurora Santiago, the Dutch victim’s partner and complainant in the robbery and murder case, presented on Monday a fifth witness, Redegonda Ybañez, 51, a coworker of Geertman in Alay Bayan.

Ybañez, in her testimony, confirmed the presence of the principal suspect, Marvin Marzan, in the office of Alay Bayan when the July 3, 2012, attack took place. She validated the identity of Marzan by tapping his shoulder with permission from Judge Christine Marie Capule.

Marzan called the witness a “liar” and a “paid hack.”

Interviewed after the hearing, the accused said he was outside his house in Barangay Tangle in Mexico town, also in Pampanga, when Geertman was killed. His wife and neighbors, he said, could attest to his presence during that time.

AURORA Santiago (right) leads calls for justice for her slain partner, Dutch activist Wilhelmus Geertman. TONETTE T. OREJAS/INQUIRER CENTRAL LUZON

“They (Geertman’s family and supporters) would get genuine justice for what they call extrajudicial killing because I am not the killer,” Marzan told the Inquirer.

Harold de la Cruz and several suspects have yet to be arrested.

Witnesses

In the trial held on Sept. 14, Geertman’s driver, Crisostomo Ybañez, identified Marzan as the man who shot and killed Geertman.

The first witness, Sister Cecil Ruiz of the human rights watchdog Karapatan, told the court that Geertman’s murder was a case of extrajudicial killing because he defended the rights of poor residents in Aurora province for 40 years by leading campaigns against mining projects, illegal fishing and timber poaching.

Santiago, the second witness, told the court that her partner had experienced harassment and was put on surveillance. Alfonso van Zijl, also a Dutch and executive director of Bataris, a church-based institute, confirmed Santiago’s information as this was confided to him by Geertman.

Local reporter Wilfredo Villareal, who was in Alay Bayan’s office at the time of the attack, would take the witness stand in the next hearing, said Santiago’s lawyer, Rolando Miranda, head of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) in Central Luzon.

Asked on the pace of trial, lawyer Edre Olalia, NUPL secretary general, said: “It’s as fast as we want it to be. At least it’s moving. We will not do anything to delay the case.”