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A FELLOW security guard vouched for murder suspect Nemuel Sumabong and said the guard was on duty in a downtown store on the morning of May 21 when lawyer Dick Sison was ambushed.
A sales clerk of the store next door said the same thing.
Such testimonies have led family members and friends of Sumabong to insist that authorities have arrested the wrong man.
Ricardo Lodonio, 42,a fellow watchman from King David Security Agency, said that Sumabong was at his post at Motortown, an auto supply store on the corner of Gochan and Magallanes streets.
Lodonio, the night guard at the store, said Sumabong promptly took over his post when his shift ended at 7 a.m. of May 21.
He said even saw Sumabong directing traffic in front of the store around the time Sison was killed. Lodonio explained that he regularly sold toilet bowls on the sidewalk near the store after work.
?Louy man pud kaayo siya nga gipasanginlan lang bisan og inosente,? Lodonio said.
The security guard said he later took Sumabong?s place when his duty ended at 7 p.m.
When asked for the logbook where they signed in and out for work, Lodonio said they had none for the month of May.
?Natunog man pod nga napuno na ang among logbook niadtong Abril,? he said, adding that they had yet to get a new one from their office.
Sumabong started working at Motortown on May 1, Lodonio said.
Rolando Rosales, 35, a sales clerk at an adjacent store, echoed Lodonio?s story.
He said that he saw Sumabong at Motortown even before 7 a.m., adding that he saw Sumabong at his post the whole day.
?Nagsulti ra man mi sa tinuod, sa mata sa Ginoo ug sa tawo. Naa gyud siya diri, daghan ming trabahante nakakita niya,? Rosales told .
Sison, the lawyer of Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Arturo Radaza, was gunned down inside his car at around 11 a.m. while stopped at a traffic light at the intersection of M.J. Cuenco avenue and V. Sotto street.
One of two men riding tandem on a motorcycle shot Sison.
The crime scene is about a kilometer away from Motortown.
Edna Tagaytay, who heads King David Security Agency, gave CDN a copy of the agency?s payroll schedule for May 2008 which showed Sumabong scoring a perfect attendance.
She said Sumabong had been working for her since 2001 and had no criminal record. The employer described the suspect as hardworking, respectful and courteous.
Thus, Tagaytay expressed belief that the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) arrested the wrong suspect.
Citing the testimonies of people who saw the suspect at work at the time Sison was killed, Sumabong?s wife, Tootsie, decried claims that her husband killed the lawyer.
She said Sumabong was not the kind of person who would want to hurt anyone, much less kill someone.
Raising an NBI artist?s sketch of Sison?s killer, Tootsie said it did not the least resemble her husband.
Noli, the suspect's older brother, cried as he related that Sumabong was not the ?tough guy? type of person.
For his part, Lorenzo, the father of Sumabong, said his son was a good man who did not like trouble.He wants justice for his son.
Sumabong is a resident of Bogo City and a first-degree cousin of Joel Sumabong, a suspected robbery gang leader.
The NBI said that at least two witnesses picked Sumabong out of a police lineup as the man who shot Sison.
Sumabong?s employer said she would help in the fight to prove his innocence, adding that the suspect would be represented by Atty. Wendell Quiban.
