Republic of the Philippines - Campaign

APPELLANTS’ BRIEF
People of the Philippines vs. Fortuna, et. al.
S. C. G. R. No. 141660-64
A: No sir, when the first man pointed his gun at me it was a
little longer and when the second man pointed his gun at
me “dumapa na po ako at sinubsob ko ‘yong ulo ko sa
baba.”
Q: When you did that, you were inside the guard house?
A: Yes sir, I was inside the guard house.
Q: Now, when the 3 men near the car faced you, as you
said, it was for about a minute or less than a minute?
[…]
A: Less than a minute sir. (TSN, August 21, 1996, pp. 74 –
84)
If in fact, the witness had seen these two men walking to and fro in front of the
guardhouse where he was stationed prior to the shooting incident and he recognized these
two men as the ones who pointed their guns at him, he would have easily concluded that
these two other persons are part of the group which carried out the ambush of the victim.
Then, he would have related to the police officers who conducted the investigation that
he saw six men who carried out the ambush. But this witness categorically stated to the
police investigators that there were only four (not six) men he saw shoot at the victim.
The acts attributed by the witness to the two men whom he referred to as those
whom he saw walking to and fro in front of his guardhouse prior to the shooting incident
are very vivid and detailed that he could not have failed to remember them when he
executed his sworn statement on the very same day that the incident happened. This is
exactly “a very important detail of the incident that one relating the incident as an
eyewitness cannot be expected to fail to mention” which the court referred to in a line
of decisions. (People vs. Narvaez, et. al., G.R. NO. 140759, January 24, 2002; People vs.
Castillo, 261 SCRA 493 citing People vs. Calegan, G.R. No. 93846, June 30, 1994, 233
SCRA 537).
Since the witness failed to mention these details when he narrated the events just
five hours after the incident happened, it raises a very strong doubt that these details ever
happened at all.
Page 33 of 127
33