Couple lured child into car, says witness

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

THE hearing on the defense panel’s bid to allow detained kidnap-slay suspect Bella Ruby Santos to post bail resumed yesterday, with a tricycle driver taking the witness stand as the prosecution’s second witness. He testified what he supposedly witnessed when Ellah Joy Pique was snatched outside her school in Barangay Calajo-an, Minglanilla, Cebu last Feb. 8, 2011.

While he did not categorically say that it was Ellah Joy Pique who was abducted by a foreigner and his female companion, Nemecio Sedeno, a 52-year-old tricycle driver from Minglanilla town, said that one thing is certain: a child was lured to board the couple’s Pajero.

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The police charged Santos and her boyfriend British national Ian Charles with kidnapping with homicide.

The defense lawyers earlier asked Judge Ester Veloso to grant Santos temporary freedom, pending the trial of the case.

Last Oct. 24, Santos pleaded not guilty to charges that she and Griffiths conspired to abduct and murder six-year-old schoolgirl Pique.

Pique was allegedly grabbed by a big male foreigner and a Filipina last Feb. 8 outside her school in Minglanilla, Cebu. Her body was found the next morning at the bottom of a cliff in Barili town.

In their bail motion, the defense asked the court to allow Santos to post bail.

But the panel of prosecutors, in their comment, argued that since Santos faces a heinous offense, “bail is not a matter of right.”

Detained

Santos is now detained at the Naga City jail, while Griffiths is out on bail pending further inquiries by London authorities and while the Philippine Government is still working for the extradition of the British national.

In his testimony in court, Sedeno admitted he executed an affidavit before the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.

He said the CIDG requested him to execute the affidavit and that he was not the one who went to the police station to execute his affidavit.

The CIDG “picked him up” to execute the affidavit, although the witness said he could not remember the exact date.

Affidavits

Since February 2011 until the present, Sedeno said he was monitoring the development of the case. He said he was aware that the first couple—Erik and Karen Berger—was arrested, but he did not execute an affidavit that Santos and Griffiths are the “real culprits.”

Sedeno said he does not know any member of the victim’s family until the schoolgirl was found dead at the foot of a cliff.

Police just “picked him up” and asked him to execute an affidavit and to testify in court because of his “knowledge” of the crime.

He told the court that he informed his wife about what he witnessed on Feb. 8, 2011 when Pique was abducted outside her school.

When he passed by the school, the witness said he heard a companion of foreigner inviting the young girl for ride to her home.

After that incident, he said he heard in media reports that a schoolgirl was snatched outside her school.

The witness said he also saw the victim’s father, Renante Pique, passed by their house looking for her missing daughter.

The witness pointed to Santos, who was seated at the bench reserved for the accused, as the companion of the foreigner who abducted Santos outside her school in February last year.

The court scheduled the prosecution’s presentation of its next witness on Feb. 13.