By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent
PROSECUTORS on Wednesday asked regional Judge Jose Escobido to dismiss the petition of suspected Australian pedophile Peter Gerald Scully to become a state witness against his former live-in partner in connection with a child abuse and human trafficking case.
The move came weeks after Scully’s lawyer Alejandro Jose Pallugna submitted a petition on behalf of the Australian. Pallugna argued that the facts of the case showed that Scully was the “least guilty,” and that the foreigner’s former partner, Carme Ann “Honey Sweet” Alvarez, was the brains behind the alleged abuse of two children.
City prosecutor Fidel Macauyag laughed off Scully’s move as he ordered his subordinates to register their opposition to Pallugna’s motion before the 37th branch of the Regional Trial Court.
Scully and Alvarez were living in a house at Apovel Subdivision in Bulua when they allegedly held and sexually abused two children in 2014.
In his motion, Pallugna said the facts of the case would show that it was Alvarez who picked up the children near Gaisano mall on Sept. 19, 2014, and she was the one who gave all the instructions to the children. This, he argued, made Scully the “least guilty” and the court could turn him into a state witness against Alvarez.
But Macauyag countered that Scully cannot be turned into a state witness unless public prosecutors would said so.
Macauyag explained: “This is how it’s done: the accused comes to us to ask that he be allowed to testify against his co-accused. If we see that his testimony is vital, and he is the least guilty, then we may accept that, and then we would recommend it to the court.”
Macauyag said Pallugna did not ask prosecutors to turn Scully into a state witness because “nakahibalo man siya nga dili kami mo-grant ana.”
Pallugna earlier said he was aware of this process but pointed out that the prosecutors were bent on pinning down Scully.
“While this is the usual process, there is also no rule against it. We leave it to the court’s discretion,” said Pallugna in an earlier interview.
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