Vendor tagged in Maguindanao massacre nears freedom

A fish vendor supposedly mistaken for one of the suspects in the Maguindanao massacre will have to wait another day before the court finally rules on his appeal to be set free.

Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes on Monday reset for Wednesday the hearing on the motion for judicial determination of the identity of fish vendor Richard Rey Gofel after the lawyer of another accused—Police Officer 1 Esprilieto Lejarso—who was to testify on his behalf failed to appear in Monday’s court hearing.

“Let the proceedings be reset to November 18 at 9 a.m.,” Reyes ruled after waiting for nearly 30 minutes to see if a lawyer would appear to represent Lejarso.

In September, the General Santos City Regional Trial Court (RTC) ordered the release of Gofel after it determined that the policemen who arrested him had mistaken him for massacre suspect Fahad Utto, who has a P250,000 bounty on his head.

The GenSan RTC had communicated to Judge Reyes its decision to clear Gofel and so the judge set the hearing Monday to determine if the man whom the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) had arrested was Utto or the fish vendor Gofel.

Lawyer Chalmer Gevieso, Gofel’s counsel, said Lejarso was supposed to testify that his client was not Utto.

Lejarso, a member of the 1508th Police Regional Mobile Group,  supposedly knew Utto, who was a member of the militia group Civilian Volunteers Organization.

Gevieso said Gensan RTC Judge Oscar Noel cleared his client after comparing his client’s facial features with that of Utto’s whose picture was on the CIDG website.

“We had the website enlarged on a projector and the judge said it was clear to see that he was not Utto,” Gevieso said.

Gevieso had filed a petition for habeas corpus with Judge Noel not knowing that his client had already been brought to Manila for trial before Judge Reyes. Philip C. Tubeza and Julie M. Aurelio