Defense attacks credibility of Maguindanao massacre witness

Defense lawyers on Wednesday tried to destroy the credibility of the last medico-legal expert in the Maguindanao massacre trial, citing lapses in the way he gathered evidence. Defense lawyers Andres Manuel and Paris Real cited inconsistencies and typographical errors in Chief Inspector Raymond Cabling's autopsy reports on the eight victims he examined on November 24, 2009, a day after the gruesome carnage that left 57 people dead. In particular, Manuel pointed out that in the autopsy report of Wilhelm Palabrica, the victim's age was 43 while his death certificate indicated that he was 46. In response, Cabling admitted: "I might have just not noticed it." Manuel also tried discrediting Cabling's observation that the victims he autopsied probably died due to the multiple gunshot wounds they sustained supposedly from high-powered firearms. "Is it possible that these victims died due to lack of air and not to multiple gunshot wounds?" Manuel asked, referring to the victims whose bodies were discovered buried at the crime site and were later unearthed. While insisting that the victims could have died due to hemorrhage from the gunshot wounds, Cabling admitted in court that lack of air could have also possibly killed the victims. Manuel also questioned the authority of Cabling in taking photographs of the crime scene even if he was not the official photographer of the regional police's scene of the crime operatives. "I was there to complement and supplement the other members of my team," explained Cabling, who is both SOCO chief and a medico-legal expert. Cabling took 128 photographs of the crime scene using his personal digital camera. Apart from Cabling, two official police photographers documented the crime scene, one of them likewise testified in court Wednesday afternoon to talk about the photos he took. For his part, defense lawyer Real emphasized that Cabling did not use a microscope and an x-ray machine to examine the pieces of clothing from the victims' remains. Manuel also pointed out that photographs of the crime scene showed investigators not wearing surgical gloves while inspecting the crime scene. In response, Cabling told the court that all the so-called "lapses" highlighted by the defense camp "did not affect" his findings that the victims still died due to multiple gunshot wounds they sustained. Meanwhile, Quezon City Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes, who is hearing the high-profile multiple murder case, set for June 8 the hearing for the petitions for bail of suspects Moactar Daud, Macton Bilungan, Mohades Ampatuan, and Misuari Ampatuan, all alleged members of the Ampatuan clan's private militia. The Ampatuan clan, a powerful political family in Maguindanao, is blamed for the massacre. — KBK, GMA News