Evidence vs Scully intact: Macauyag

By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent

CITY prosecutor Fidel Macauyag yesterday denied that evidence against suspected Australian pedophile Peter Scully were burned in the Hall of Justice fire in January, saying the prosecution’s case against the foreigner accused of abusing children here has remained strong.

“Dili man tino-od nasunog evidence against Scully,” said Macauyag. Macauyag said the evidence for human trafficking and child abuse against Scully were intact even as he assured that prosecutors would prosecute the case vigorously.

“We have overwhelming evidence still intact. We will not allow any foreigner to bastardize our laws especially those taking advantage of the vulnerability of our poor children,” he said.

Macauyag said this almost a week after Scully’s lawyer Jose Alejadro Pallugna withdrew his motion for the production of object evidence. The withdrawal came after prosecutor Charissa Galarita Bito-on told a regional court that the prosecution panel has no “object evidence” to present.

Pallugna said the evidence like Scully’s computer hardware, memory card, camera, computer monitor, video recorder, and chain were destroyed in the fire that gutted down the Hall of Justice in January. These were seized by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) during a raid in Scully’s rented house at Apovel subdivision in Bulua.

Macauyag said Pallugna’s claims and the reports about the destruction of the evidence in the January fire were “misleading.” For his part, Pallugna said court records would show that Judge Jose Escobido of RTC Branch 37 asked the prosecution about the kind of evidence they would present in court, and the reply was that there was no object evidence.

“It’s in the court’s stenographic notes,” he said. “Because of that revelation, I withdrew my motion.” Judge Escobido has ordered Scully’s lawyer to submit an affidavit to answer the human trafficking and child abuse charges against him.

The next Scully case hearing has been set in the morning of Nov. 10.