A FORENSIC pathologist testified yesterday in Superior Court that security guard Bernardo M. Tique died due to injuries on the head.
Dr. Raquel DR. Fortun said Tique’s injuries on the upper lip and head were consistent with blunt object or stomping.
Tique sustained laceration on the right upper lip, fracture to the back of skull, smaller contusions at the base of the brain, and swelling and bleeding of the brain, according to Fortun, who is a faculty member of the University of the Philippines College of Medicine.
Fortun said she only conducted an external examination on the victim on Dec. 11, 1996 because she was informed that she had to wait for the investigators coming from the CNMI.
The doctor said she did the actual examination on Tique’s body the following day.
She said there was also evidence that the victim had pneumonia infection.
Dr. Eric S. Legaspi testified how they treated the security guard from Dec. 3, 1996 until he died eight days later.
At first Tique could not talk or move, said the neurosurgeon from St. Luke’s Medical Center, which is in Manila.
Legaspi said the victim seemed to be recovering after being given medicine, but his condition later got worse.
Legaspi said antibiotics were given to Tique to control his infection and steroid to control the swelling of his brain.
He said the factors contributing to the victim’s death were damage to the brain, pneumonia and diabetes.
The two doctors testified for the government in the ongoing trial of murder suspects Sidney Tenorio Camacho and Alex Agulto Camacho.
The two defendants were charged with second degree murder and aggravated assault and battery over the fatal mauling of the security guard at Nikko Hotel on Dec. 1, 1996.
On Tuesday, a witness testified that he saw the defendants beating up Tique at the hotel’s swimming pool area. The suspects got upset when the security guard asked them to leave the pool because swimming was not allowed at the time.
