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By James Konstantin Galvez, Reporter
The Department of Justice will
present seven more witnesses before the Makati Regional Trial Court
to prevent former Batangas governor Antonio Leviste from posting
bail.
To take the witness stand at the
sala of Judge Elmo Alameda of Branch 150 of the Regional Trial Court
when the hearing on Leviste’s motion for bail takes place on April
25 are Dr. Voltaire Pascual Nulud, Supt. Juanita Ramos, PO3 Miriam
Ciocon, PO2 Herman Panabang, PO1 Elmer Manuel and nonuniformed
personnel Arturo Relos and Beethoven de Rama.
Nulud is the medico-legal officer
of the Southern Police District which conducted the autopsy on
Rafael de las Alas, who Leviste shot and killed in January. Leviste,
who is facing a charge of murder, claimed self-defense.
The rest investigated the case.
Senior State Prosecutor Emmanuel
Velasco said the list complies with the order of Alameda on March 28
for the prosecution to present its witnesses for their opposition to
Leviste’s bail petition.
Velasco said the prosecution
would present at least 15 witnesses to bolster the argument that the
evidence against Leviste is more than enough for the court to
dismiss his petition.
In his petition, Leviste argued
that the evidence presented by the prosecution is weak and that the
right to post bail, especially if the crime is not a heinous
offense, is guaranteed by the country’s Constitution.
But Velasco said their evidence
is sufficient for the court to deny the petition, adding that
Leviste is charged with murder, a nonbailable offense. The
prosecution earlier presented Senior Insp. Elizalde Odi, Senior
Insp. Armin Guerrero and P03 Dondon Villararbo as their first
witnesses in their opposition to the bail petition.
Odi, the head of the SPD Scene of
the Crime Operatives which went to the crime scene at the 9th floor
office of Leviste at the LPL Tower in Legaspi Village, testified
that de las Alas’s 9 mm pistol was in a safety mode during the
incident.
Asked by defense lawyers to
clarify what he meant by “in a safety mode” Odi said it means
the gun was not fired.
Guerrero, a forensic firearms
examiner of the SPD Crime Laboratory and Villararbo, the crime
lab’s fingerprint examiner, testified that the four shells found
at the crime scene came from Leviste’s Walther model 380 pistol.
De las Alas’s family sought a
reinvestigation and the court approved the recommendation of the
Department of Justice upgrading the charge from homicide to murder.
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