Maguindanao massacre trial: Could metal fragments have come from surgery, not guns?

A defense lawyer in the Ampatuan murder trial on Thursday opened up the possibility that the metal fragments recovered from some of the massacre victims came from "surgical operations" and not from a firearm. During the resumption of the murder trial, lawyer Paris Real asked expert witness Dr. Ruperto Sumbilon, a medico-legal expert from the National Bureau of Investigation, if he was aware whether the two victims he autopsied had undergone surgery before the November 23 killings. Sumbilon replied that he did not ask the families of victims Rasul Daud and Norton Edsa about it. The two victims were drivers of the two vehicles included in an electoral convoy that was supposed to head to Shariff Aguak to register then Buluan vice mayor Esmael "Toto" Mangudadatu in the May 2010 elections. Real, legal counsel for accused Datukan Malang Salibo, said such surgeries might have required the implanting of metal substance inside the bodies of the victims. The defense lawyer then tried asking Sumbilon if he could tell a bullet fragment and a metal implant apart but the prosecution lawyers objected. Real also pointed out that in his testimony, Sumbilon did not specify the sequence within which the gunshot wounds were sustained by the two victims. Real last week filed a petition before a Quezon City court seeking to cite in contempt prosecution lawyers Nena Santos and Harry Roque, as well as the Philippine Daily Inquirer for allegedly putting him and his client in a bad light to the public. The lawyer said the private prosecutors "contemptuous and unwarranted" comments to the media violated the sub judice rule, while an Inquirer article about the proceedings branded his cross examination as a "bizarre twist." He also said that news reports about him have already led to some people calling him "baliw" (crazy). Sumbilon is so far the fifth medico-legal expert presented by the prosecution. The other experts who have already testified were Dr. Dean Cabrera, Dr. Ricardo Rodaje, Dr. Reynaldo Romero, and Dr. Felino Brunia Jr. A total of 197 individuals are facing 57 counts of murder for the killing of 57 people, 32 of whom are journalists, in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao on November 23, 2009. A 58th person, Reynaldo "Bebong" Momay, a photojournalist from Tacurong City, is also said to have been victimized in the massacre but his remains have yet to be recovered. – VVP, GMA News