Atty. Mia murder case another defense witness retracts

TAGBILARAN CITY, Philippines — Another supposed witness of the defense in the Atty. Mia Mascarinas-Green’s murder case retracted from his previous sworn statement, which he claimed he made because he was threatened by one of the suspects, Lloyd Gonzaga.

A certain Juan Sebusa, chief security officer of the Dagohoy Security Agency, joined his two other security guards in withdrawing their respective affidavits they executed earlier in favor of the defense.

Sebusa executed on March 6, 2017 a separate affidavit sworn to by prosecutor Eric Ucat detailing how he was forced to sign the earlier statement.

Sebusa alleged that Gonzaga forced him to execute an affidavit of witness, stating that Romarico Benigian, another murder suspect who is still at large, is a security officer of the agency, “even if in truth and in fact, he is not connected with the agency.”

At first, Sebusa said he refused to execute the affidavit of witness but he eventually did because Gonzaga and Benigian “threatened to kill me if I will not cooperate with them.”

A certain lawyer, identified only as Atty. Donalvo also threatened him that the former will find a way to close down the security agency if he won’t execute the affidavit of witness.

“Because of too much fear, I was forced to execute the said affidavit, even if I had to tell a lie, for security reasons,” Sebusa said. But, after soul searching, he said he realized that he must come out with the truth to clear his conscience, thus he executed the affidavit of retraction, “without intimidation.”

The British Broadcasting Corp. had this to say recently: “A (British) man whose lawyer wife was gunned down on a busy Philippines street is seeking to meet with top-ranking officials to try to bring her killers to justice.”

“Mia Mascarinas-Green was killed in her car in Tagbilaran City with their three children in the back seat. Stuart Green, from Hertfordshire, was living with his family in Bohol province when his wife was shot. After shooting Mia the killers turned the gun on the children but the gun jammed, Mr. Green said.”

“If not for the miracle of the gun jamming it was highly likely that I would have returned to four coffins,” Mr. Green added. “Mrs. Mascarinas-Green was forced to stop at about 16:45 on 15 February when a motorbike swerved in front of the car she was driving.”

“Witnesses said two men walked over to the car and put a bullet in the engine, before firing a total of 28 bullets at Mrs. Mascarinas-Green — nine of which lodged into the back of her neck, killing her.” (FREEMAN)