Bella’s smile lingers

The witness said he remembered her smile.

“I saw her,” said tricycle driver Nemensio Sedenio in Cebuano.

“Our eyes met. I smiled at her and she smiled back.”

Sedenio yesterday testified in court that he saw the accused Bella Ruby Santos with a foreign male in a blue Pajero parked outside the elementary school in Minglanilla town on the afternoon 6-year-old Ellah Joy Pique was kidnapped a year ago.

Then he pointed to Santos in the courthouse, where the handcuffed woman sat in the front row dressed in jeans and a yellow prison T-shirt.

She held her head high and this time gave a smirk.

The driver was the first adult witness presented by the prosecution in an open trial to pinpoint Santos in charges of kidnapping with homicide for the Feb. 8 crime, which marks its first anniversary next week.

Yesterday’s hearing on a petition for bail was to determine whether evidence of guilt was strong enough to keep Santos behind bars throughout the trial.

According to Sedenio, the woman in the car called out to invite a little girl to ride with them.

“Ingun siya sa bata, ‘Ali, day, pasakyon tikaw sa inyo (She told the child, ‘Come here, little girl, we’ll give you a ride home’),” the tricycle driver told Cebu Regional Trial Court judge Ester Veloso.

The driver said he was an “arm’s length” away when his tricycle made a U-turn on the road near the parked car and he saw the woman in the passenger seat with the window rolled down.

“I stopped for a while when I made a U-turn and I clearly saw them,” Sedenio said. The Pajero was allegedly parked about 40 meters from the Calajo-an Elementary School in Minglanilla town. It was late afternoon, dismissal time for pupils.

The driver said the woman had long hair then, unlike the boyish cropped hair that Santos wore while she was eluding an arrest warrant in Manila.

Since her arrest in October 2011, Santos has been detained in the local jail of her hometown of Naga.

Where before she came to court hearings in high heels and sexy clothes, yesterday she was dressed in a plain yellow prison T-shirt, black skinny jeans and pink sandals. A headband and shiny lip gloss were her only accessories.

Her British boyfriend Ian Charles Griffiths remains in the United Kingdom.

In a hearing last Nov. 15, 2011, in the private chambers of the judge, a young schoolmate of Ella Joy also pointed to Santos as the woman who drove off with the little girl.

In court yesterday, Sedenio, the tricycle driver, said he had a daily route between Calajo-an, Sangi to the town proper of Minglanilla.

When he was shown a photo of Griffiths, he confirmed that this was the man at the wheel of the Pajero. He described the man as a large, heavy-set “white” foreigner.

Under cross-examination, however, the tricycle driver said he didn’t get a good look of the little girl who boarded the car.

The court hearing will resume on Feb. 13.

Defense lawyer Rameses Villagonzalo tried to shake the witness’ account by pointing to inconsistencies.

The witness said he reached first year high school while his affidavit said he reached third year. Eventually, Sedenio said the information on his affidavit is the correct data.

Asked if he knew anyone in the Pique family before the incident, the driver said no.

Sedenio said Ellah Joy’s father Reynante Pique went to their neighborhood that day in barangay Lipatan, Minglanilla, which is next to Calajo-an to look for the missing Ellah Joy.

He said his wife told him about the kidnapping and described Ellah Joy to him. He said he told his wife that he saw a girl of that description ride a car earlier that afternoon.

When the defense asked how he knew it was Ellah Joy who boarded the Pajero, the witness eventually got irritated and loudly said that he was sure that it was Ellah Joy, and that it was Santos and Griffiths who took her.

He said he didn’t take note of the license plate number of the Pajero because “wa ko nagdahum nga maabot ni sa in-ani. (I didn’t expect it would come to this).”

The judge repeatedly reprimanded Villlagonzalo to “stop acting like a child” and “act like a grown-up” after the defense lawyer made several side remarks and opinions during the witness’ testimony.

After the hearing, Pique, Ellah Joy’s father, said he was satisfied with the witness’ testimony.

“I’m confident with his testimony and I am not worried,” Pique said in Cebuano.

Prosecution lawyer Inocencio dela Cerna said they were able to show that the accused couple, Santos and Griffiths, were the ones who picked Ellah Joy outside her school.

“They were not able to destroy the prosecution’s testimony,” he said.

Defense lawyer Villagonzalo disagreed, saying they “demolished everything” the prosecution laid out in the testimony because “the witness kept changing his testimony.”

The courtroom was filled with spectators who wore blue shirts with the text: “Bella and Ian are Innocent.” Ten others carried placards calling for Santos’ freedom.

Santos and Griffiths insist they are innocent of the charge of kidnapping with homicide, a capital offense.

Santos was arrested last Oct. 7 in Metro Manila. Griffiths, a 51-year-old accountant, is believed to be in the United Kingdom and is on the “red alert list” of the Interpol as a fugitive wanted for prosecution in the Philippines.

Ellah Joy was last seen walking home from school with friends on Feb. 8. Her naked body was found the next day wrapped in a blanket at the foot of a ravine in Barili town in southwest Cebu.

She was killed with a blow to the head. There was no sign that she had been raped. Candeze R. Mongaya, Reporter