NBI agent told explain failure to testify in road-rage case

MANILA, Philippines – A Quezon City court has ordered a National Bureau of Investigation agent to explain why he failed to show up in court to testify against road-rage-murder suspect Jason Ivler.

Judge Luisito Cortez of regional trial court Branch 84 noted that NBI special agent Emmanuel Lapus’ consecutive absences have delayed the hearings of the murder case against the accused.

Lapus was given five days to submit a written explanation for not attending the hearings on March 19 and April 13 during which he was supposed to testify as a prosecution witness.

The order was given in open court Friday.

Assistant chief state prosecutor Richard Anthony Fadullon said they learned that Lapus, despite a special order from higher-ups directing him to attend the court hearing, was in Palawan for an assignment.

The lead prosecutor added that the NBI agent was told as early as March that he was expected in court last Friday.

“What we are requesting is that Lapus be made to explain his failures to attend the hearings…. This is causing a delay at the expense of the court,” Fadullon told the court.

Should Lapus still fail to show up at the next hearings on April 27, May 11 and May 25, the prosecution will present a ballistician from the Firearms Investigation Division in Camp Crame.

The Quezon City court has subpoenaed Ronan Masacupan, a ballistician, to also appear in court as a prosecution witness.

In an earlier interview, Fadullon said the NBI recovered a handgun from the house of Ivler’s mother in Blue Ridge Subdivision where the accused engaged arresting officers in a shootout on Jan. 19, 2010 in which he was critically wounded.

Ivler had gone into hiding for two months after he was tagged as the one who shot dead Renato Ebarle Jr. on a traffic-jammped Quezon City street on the night of Nov. 19, 2009.

Fadullon told reporters on Friday that the NBI recovered cal.-45 slugs from Ebarle’s Toyota Land Cruiser which he said matched with the gun found at the house of Marlene Aguilar-Pollard, Ivler’s mother.

“That is what we are trying to prove,” the lead prosecutor said of Masacupan’s expected testimony.