New witness tags mayor as gunman of Aklan broadcaster
A second witness has identified a former Aklan town mayor as the alleged gunman of slain Aklan broadcaster Herson "Boy" Hinolan.
State Prosecutor Hazel Valdez of the Department of Justice's Task Force 211 said Marijoe Icamina testified at the Cebu Regional Trial Court Branch 16 on Monday pointing at former Lezo town mayor Alfredo "Fred" Arcenio as the lone gunman who shot Hinolan last November 13, 2004.
Valdez said that Icamina pointed at Arcenio at the court room when asked to identify the person whom she saw had shot Hinolan.
"She identified Arcenio as the gunman," Valdez said in a telephone interview yesterday.
Icamina,34, corroborated an earlier testimony of prosecution witness Niño Suñer who said he saw the former mayor armed with a handgun approached and shot Hinolan while the broadcaster was urinating near a carnival in the capital town of Kalibo.
Hinolan, former station manager of dyIN Bombo Radyo in Kalibo and host of the station's morning program "Bombohanay Bigtime," died two days later from multiple gunshot wounds.
Arcenio, a former soldier, has denied involvement in the killing and hashas repeatedly claimed that he was in Lezo town 7 km from Kalibo at the time of the incident. He is detained at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center.
Valdez said Icamina told the court that she was also a few meters from Hinolan when he was shot. Though she saw the face of the gunman, she did not know Arcenio at the time of the shooting.
But when she heard reports linking the former mayor to the killing, she went to Lezo town and discreetly watched the municipal government's flag-raising ceremony where she identified the mayor as the same person who shot Hinolan.
Valdez said Icamina's testimony had to be suspended twice because the witness broke into tears because she said she feared for her life after she testified.
Icamina had also earlier executed an affidavit claiming to have overhead an aide of the mayor taking about the plan to kill the broadcaster.
One of Arcenio's lawyers, Ramiro Madarang, said they found irregularities in the testimony of Icamina when compared with the affidavit that she earlier executed.
Madarang said in a telephone interview that Icamina did not say in her affidavit that she was near the scene of the shooting.
"Now, she is saying that she was near the shooting and that can categorically identify the gunman. That's very unusual and surprising," said Madarang.
He said he will still subject Icamina to a cross-examination in the next hearing where he expects to point out the alleged inconsistencies in her testimony.