Tension high as ex-gov testifies in Palawan court

Joel Reyes. REDEMPTO ANDA/INQUIRER SOUTHERN LUZON

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY—For the first time, former Palawan Gov. Joel Reyes appeared and testified in court as the principal accused and the alleged mastermind in the murder of local broadcaster and environmentalist Gerry Ortega on Wednesday.

Reyes’ expected denial of involvement in the crime was overshadowed by the courtroom drama during the hearing on his bail petition at the Palawan Regional Trial Court Branch 52.

Prosecution lawyer Harry Roque Jr. was probing Reyes’ admission that he employed political allies in the government when the former governor said, “That’s what we do as politicians,” in apparent reference to Roque becoming a representative as his party-list group, Kabayan, received enough votes to earn a seat in Congress.

A piqued Roque exploded with a remark that sparked a word war between the lawyers from both sides.

“Motion to strike [Reyes’ remarks from the record], your honor. I do not wish to be compared to Joel Reyes. He is accused of murder and I have never been accused of murder,” Roque said.

Reyes’ lead counsel, Demetrio Custodio, came to the rescue of his client and demanded that Roque’s statement be erased from the record. Custodio snapped back at Roque with a terse order, asking him to sit down.

A stunned Judge Angelo Arizala admonished both camps and demanded an orderly conduct of the proceedings.

Ortega, a popular broadcast journalist in Palawan, was gunned down by a lone assassin in a used clothes store in this city on Jan. 24, 2011.

The gunman, Marlon Recamata, was arrested after a brief chase and later confessed to the crime. His arrest led to the arrest of several other suspects who pointed to the Reyes brothers as the masterminds in the murder.

The Reyes brothers fled the country in early 2012 several months after they were indicted by the Department of Justice in the Ortega murder. They were arrested in September last year in a resort in Phuket, Thailand.

Thursday’s hearing was being held on Reyes’ appeal to be granted bail. Earlier, Arizala allowed bail for Reyes’ brother and coaccused, former Coron Mayor Mario Reyes.

In his testimony, Reyes denied the allegation by a state witness, Rodolfo Edrad Jr., that he ordered him to kill Ortega. He denied that he employed Edrad as a personal security aide after he ended his term as governor.

The Reyes brothers, while detained, filed their candidacies for mayor and vice mayor of their hometown of Coron. But Joel lost to former Councilor Jerry Barracoso in the mayoral race while Mario, a former Coron mayor, lost to Councilor Joseph Armstrong Palanca in the race for vice mayor.