CEBU, Philippines - The trial of the case against two men accused in the 2008 murder of a radio block-timer in Gingoog City, Misamis Oriental, will be held in Cebu.
The second division of the Supreme Court has ordered the transfer of the murder trial of Arecio Padrigao from Gingoog City to Cebu City upon the request of the prosecutors to ensure the safety of their witnesses.
The high tribunal likewise ordered the jail warden of the Misamis Oriental Provincial Jail to immediately transfer accused Ariel Degamo and Benjamin Palarca to the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology facility in Cebu City.
The criminal records division of the Regional Trial Court in Cebu City yesterday received the records of the case from the clerk of court of the RTC Branch 43 in Gingoog City.
The prosecution panel requested the transfer of the venue because of the alleged threats to the lives of the witnesses. The victim’s widow Teresita Padrigao claimed that Gingoog City is within the sphere of influence of the politician who allegedly ordered the killing of her husband.
The widow claimed that a certain vice mayor may have a hand in the murder of her husband because the accused were identified with him. Prior to Padrigao’s murder he allegedly witnessed the killing of the son of a barangay official in their place.
Cebu was chosen as the venue of the trial because of its excellent facilities for the protection of witnesses, who are now under the Department of Justice’s witness protection program.
Padrigao’s seven-year-old daughter and other witnesses identified Palarca as the shooter and Degamo as the one who drove the getaway motorcycle.
The girl had just disembarked from her father’s motorcycle after Padrigao drove her to school last November 17, 2008, when he was shot.
Padrigao’s murder is not the first case involving a journalist to be transferred to Cebu City.
The other cases that were transferred to Cebu include that of Marlene Esperat in Tacurong City, Edgar Damalerio and Edgar Amoro in Pagadian City. — Fred P. Languido/BRP (THE FREEMAN)