Gisela Boniel’s case: Witness recounts role in crime

FOR the amount of P10, 000, the pump boat operator’s life turned upside down after helping his cousin who allegedly killed Bien Unido, Bohol Mayor Gisela Boniel in June 2017.

Riolito Boniel, witness and one of the accused of the slay of Mayor Gisela Boniel, testified in Lapu-Lapu City court on Friday that he was given with an envelope containing P10,000 cash from Gisela’s husband, former Board Member Niño Rey Boniel, after he helped him.

“Gisugo ko niya. (He told me) Ayaw og saba imoha na,” Riolito, who was wearing a blue shirt with a bulletproof vest on his body, said during the continuation of his testimony for the parricide case at the Lapu-Lapu City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 54 on Friday.

Riolito and Niño Rey are cousins.

Riolito, the pump boat operator, told Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Juan Pedro Navera that he helped his cousin allegedly transport the dead body of Mayor Gisela.

Riolito added that the pumpboat used during the incident and described where Gisela’s body was allegedly placed before she was allegedly shot in the head by the suspect and allegedly thrown into the seawaters between Caubian Island and Olango Island last June 7, 2017.

Prosecution lawyer Amando Virgil Ligutan believed that Riolito’s testimony would put some weight in attaining justice.

Ligutan said Riolito’s testimony, for his plea to be dismissed from a parricide case, could be used as the main testimony for the prosecution.

Recently, two accused, Riolito and Randel Lupas were acquitted from kidnapping and serious illegal detention cases after the court found sufficient grounds to grant the prosecution’s plea for a motion to discharge.

The two are now state witnesses under the Witness Protection Program.

While, defense lawyer Gerardo Carillo, said anyone can easily claim to be witnessing a crime.

“This is the case of murder, the case of parricide. There has to be evidence of death,” said Carillo, referring to the alleged body of Gisela which until now is not yet discovered.

The continuation of the hearing or the third schedule of presentation of the prosecution’s evidence is set on Nov. 23, 2018.