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By Francis C. Hidalgo Jr,. Correspondent
LAGAWE, Ifugao: The 25-year-old
suspect in the killing of American Peace Corps volunteer Julia
Campbell is set to be arraigned today at the Regional Trial Court-Banaue
Branch.
Judge Esther Piscoso-Flor of the
RTC-Banaue Branch here will formally arraign Juan Duntugan in
connection with the murder case filed by the Philippine National
Police and state prosecutors for the killing of Campbell, 40, in
April.
The arraignment, originally set
earlier this month, was postponed after defense lawyers asked the
judge that they be given more time to study the amended information
filed by a new battery of private prosecutors commissioned by the US
government and Peace Corps-Philippines.
During the process of the
investigation, Duntugan confessed killing Campbell, claiming it was
by accident after the American national allegedly bumped into him
while she was on her way back to her rented room at Batad village in
Banaue town.
Duntugan, who hails from La
Trinidad, Benguet, said he thought it was a neighbor with whom he
had a long-standing grudge that he had hit with a stone, noting that
it was too late when he realized that it was Campbell.
Pedro Mayamo, Duntugan’s
defense counsel, said that when amendments were made in the
information presented by the prosecution through their Baguio-based
private prosecutors from the Baguio-based Agranzamendez Liceralde
Gallardo and Associates Law Firm meant that he needed more time to
study their arguments.
Campbell, who was on a two-year
work tour in the Philippines, had gone to Banaue for several days of
vacation and had planned to return to Manila on April 10. She was
declared missing and was discovered weeks later in a shallow grave
about a hundred feet below the suspect’s house. She was last seen
buying soft drink from Duntungan’s wife.
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