Two Talisay shooting victims ‘can’t identify’ their assailants

The two male foreigners who survived last week’s shooting in a McDonalds outlet in Talisay City said they could not identify their assailants.

With this, Talisay City prosecutors  will have to rely  on the accounts of the girlfriend of slain German engineer Heinrich Haffner, and two other witnesses.

There were also video images of the restaurant’s CCTV camera during the 4 a.m. gun attack.

Talisay City Prosecutor Hyacinth Jadraque said Frenchman Julien Maillard and Indian national Cheten Saparaiya who sustained gunshot wounds   in the arm, leg and nape,  told her they were unable to identify their assailants.

Maillard also told reporters he isn’t interested in appearing in the trial. Charges of  murder and frustrated murder were filed agaisnt  four male suspects, one of them still at large.

“Useless kay walay koy na-recognize sa mga suspects. (It’s useless because I could not recognize even one of the suspects),”  said the Frenchman.

Maillard posted  P24,000 bail yesterday  and  plans to go to Siquijor province to settle differences with his estranged wife who filed a complaint againss him for  violation of Republic Act 9262 or  the Anti-Violence Against Women and Children (VAWC) Act.

Maillard said he will go home  to Corsica, France after the trip.

Asked if he would   return to the Philippines, where he’s spent nine years and learned to speak Cebuano fluently, he said “dili na mosugot ako family kay kuyaw. (My family doesn’t want me to go back here because they think this place is dangerous).”

Executive Judge Soliver Peras of the Regional Trial Court in Cebu City signed the release order.

About eight men were involved in the attack,  a case of random violence that took place at dawn after the foreigners exchanged heated words with customers in another table.

The armed men arrived in a vehicle and two motorbikes at dawn shortly after the Indian and Frenchman had a verbal confrontation with two male  customers, one of whom taunted the Indian by calling him a “Turko” who wouldn’t lend him money.

In yesterday’s police forum Talakayan sa Isyung Pulis (TSIP) Supt. Rex Derilo, deputy chief of the PNP’s Regional Intelligence Division (RID), said  police are looking at two other male suspects.

He said police are waiting for the McDonald’s management in Manila to authorize their outlet in Talisay City to show thesecurity camera footage in order to verify the identities  the other perpetrators.

Prosecutor Jadraque said a  positive identification by the two male victims would have strengthened the case  and corroborated the testimony of Sheila Jane Gimutao, Haffner’s girlfriend.

Heated argument

“It would have be okay if there are other eyewitnesses to testify on his behalf. Her testimony is important in the civil aspect, but in a criminal case, it’s better to have another witness,” she said.

Maillard said he was unable to see the suspects because he was at the restaurant counter ordering food  when Saparaiya, his neighbor in barangay Puok, Talisay City and the suspects were engaged in a heated argument.

He said while he ordered food for Saparaiya and a female companion, he overheard men from the nearby table make fun of Saparaiya.

“Wala ko kita (sa hitsura) kay naa ko sa (I didn’t see what they looked like because I was at the) counter,” said Maillard. He said Saparaiya later stepped outside the restaurant  and continued to argue with the men.

Maillard said he heard a gunshot fired and saw Saparaiya run back into the outlet.

Maillard said he later asked the security guard if they had a CCTV camera and was told there was none.

He then asked for the phone number of the nearest police precinct  but the guard told him he had none.

Maillard later went to see the store manager to ask for police assistance.  It was then that he heard gunshots.

Police filed charges of murder, two counts of frustrated murder and illegal possession of firearms against three men  – Ricci Edwin Ramirez Jr., Allan Veloz, and Roger Cal , all Talisay city residents.

A fourth suspect, Dexci “Tata” Gomonte, who was caught on videotape, is still at large.