Monday, December 10, 2007 5 acquitted of rob raps By Rhodamae M. Hernandez
THE Regional Trial Court acquitted five men accused of stealing VCD players inside a store along Magsaysay Street, Davao City in January 2005. The reason: the security guard who held the vital testimony was not presented in court.
RTC Branch 11 Judge Virginia Hofileña Europa cleared Jelmer Bantilan Maldora; Adonis Mirafuentes Madjos; Ronald Flasco Roelo; Randy Molde Amuali; Tammy Perez Fernandez; and Dodong Depaz after the prosecution failed to prove their guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
Court records showed that the accused, assisted by their counsels, pleaded not guilty when arraigned.
The case stemmed from the complaint filed by storeowner Florentina Tubo who said she first saw their warehouse in disarray at around 7 a.m. of June 4 and that during inventory of the items inside, it was found out that 85 VCD players were missing.
During the investigation, the guard on duty Alex Uayan identified the workers to be behind the robbery.
She added that the men admitted to her that a certain Kiram bought all the VCD players and that when she confronted Kiram about it, the latter readily offered to pay her back the amount of P100,000.
During the trial, PO2 Jeremias Cunanan of the Sta. Ana police station was presented and he testified that in his investigation of the case he was able to talk to Uayan who admitted that the workers gave him P7,000 to allow them to enter the warehouse.
With all these said about Uayan, however, he was not presented in court to testify.
Europa ruled that the only person who could testify to the alleged robbery was Uayan. Even the testimony of the policeman cannot be appreciated because it is hearsay, Europa said.
