Arraignment of Zaldy Ampatuan postponed

THE REGIONAL trial court (RTC) of Quezon City postponed the  arraignment of former ARMM Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan last 25 April 2012 to allow him to file a motion for reconsideration of the court’s earlier order setting his arraignment.

Ampatuan’s lawyer Sigfrid Philip Fortun requested that his client be given time to appeal the scheduling of his arraignment, and also argued that “arraigning Ampatuan would deprive the latter of his right to appeal to the Supreme Court (SC) the Court of Appeals (CA) decision junking his petition [for certiorari and prohibition (with finality)],” a Philippine Daily Inquirer 26 April 2012 report said.

The Inquirer reported that Quezon City RTC Branch 221 Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes said that “(Zaldy) Ampatuan would be arraigned after she rules on the opposing arguments of the prosecution and the defense on the issue of the arraignment.”

Only Zaldy’s father Andal Ampatuan Sr. and brother Andal “Unsay” Ampatuan Jr. have been arraigned among the members of the main branch of the Ampatuan clan. Only  of the 196 accused were in detention as of April 2012.

The Former Special 11^th Division affirmed its 8 November 2011 ruling upholding the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) filing of the criminal information against Zaldy Ampatuan. In the 16-page resolution dated 18 April 2012, the CA through Associate Justice Noel Tijam said “there is nothing new in petitioners’ motion for reconsideration that would compel us to digress from our previous findings.”

The CA Manila also junked Ampatuan’s motion for a reinvestigation of the case, saying that it “would cause  grave injustice both to the prosecution as well as to the defense.”

Zaldy Ampatuan sought the reinstatement of the 16 April 2010 resolution issued by former Justice Secretary Alberto Agra dropping him from the list of accused in the Ampatuan Massacre trial. On 5 May 2010, Agra reversed his own resolution after a private prosecutor presented additional evidence against Zaldy and Akmad “Tato” Ampatuan.

The relatives of the massacre victims said they were disappointed with the postponement of Zaldy’s arraignment. In a Facebook post of JUSTICE! Now, a group of the families of the media victims in the Massacre, one of the widows said that ““Dismayado ako at malungkot dahil hindi natuloy ang matagal na naming inaantay na mabasahan ng sakdal si Zaldy at ang iba pang akusado sa kaso ng Ampatuan Massacre kahit pa sabihin nila sa korte na not guilty sila ( I am dismayed and saddened because we have long  been waiting for the arraignment of Zaldy and the other accused, even if they just declared that they’re not guilty).” (https://www.facebook.com/notes/nenen-momay-castillo/justice-now-dismayado-sa-di-tuloy-na-arraignment-ni-zaldy-ampatuan/10150703124601818)

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New complaint

The daughter of missing Midland Review photographer Reynaldo “Bebot” Momay filed before the Department of Justice in Manila last Jan. 17 murder charges against the 196 suspects in the Nov. 23, 2009 massacre in Ampatuan town, Maguindanao. Only 57 counts of murder had been filed in court. The Momay complaint raises the number of murder counts to 58.

To support her charge that Momay was among the journalists killed in the Massacre, his daughter Ma. Reynafe Momay-Castillo said Momay had told friends and colleagues that he would go to Buluan to cover a press conference called by then Buluan town vice-mayor and now Maguindanao Gov. Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu last Nov. 23, 2009. Momay allegedly joined the convoy led by the vice mayor’s wife Genalin Mangudadatu which was headed for the Shariff Aguak office of the Commission on Elections.

One of the witnesses cited by Castillo is a co-worker of her father at the Midland Review. Momay allegedly called Jimmy Laguna a few hours before the Nov. 23, 2009 massacre.

“Papang called (Jimmy Porras Laguna)…to apologize that he could not do as asked (pick-up copies of their newspaper) because he was already in a van with other media people to cover the filing of the certificate of candidacy of Vice Mayor Mangudadatu at the COMELEC office in Shariff Aguak,” said Castillo.

The motorcycle Momay borrowed to go to the “press conference of Toto Mangudadatu” was also found at the house of Rep. Toi Mangudadatu in Buluan town, Maguindanao. Members of the media and supporters of the Mangudadatu family met at the house of Rep. Mangudadatu in Buluan before they left for Shariff Aguak.

Castillo also presented the dentures found by a team of forensic experts at the massacre cite which allegedly belonged to her missing father. Department of Justice has yet to issue a resolution on the complaint filed by Castillo.

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CA upholds denial of an Ampatuan’s petition for certiorari

CMFR/PHILIPPINES – The Manila Court of Appeals (CA) has upheld its 18 August 2011 denial of  the petition for certiorari filed by a primary accused in the 23 November 2009 Ampatuan massacre.

In a 3 January 2012 resolution, the Manila CA’s former 16^th Division denied the 31 August 2011 motion for reconsideration filed by former Mamasapano town, Maguindanao mayor Akmad “Tato” Ampatuan Sr. seeking the reversal of the 18 August 2011 decision affirming his inclusion in the list of accused in the Ampatuan multiple murder case.  (The Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists, Inc. [FFFJ] received a copy of the decision on 18 January 2012. CMFR is the secretariat of FFFJ.)

“Finding no new matter of substance which would warrant the modification much less the reversal of the assailed Decision, petitioner’s Motion for Reconsideration is hereby DENIED for lack of merit (emphasis not supplied),” said the decision penned by Associate Justice Francisco Acosta. The other members of the Division are Associate Justices  Vicente Velasco and Angelita Gacutan.

Tato Ampatuan filed a Motion for Reconsideration last 31 August 2011 after the appellate court denied his petition for certiorari against former Acting Justice Sec. Alberto Agra and families of the victims in the 23 November 2009 Massacre. Tato Ampatuan alleged that Agra acted with grave abuse of discretion when he ordered his re-inclusion in the list of accused in the multiple murder case.

The Manila CA in its 18 August 2011 decision said “no reversible error (was) committed by the public respondents in finding probable cause to indict the petitioner for multiple murder.” (as qtd. in an Inquirer report, http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/44071/appeals-court-won%E2%80%99t-let-suspect-off-the-hook)

Tato Ampatuan is among the 196 persons charged with 57 counts of murder for allegedly planning and executing the killing of 58 persons including 32 journalists and media workers in Ampatuan town, Maguindanao on 23 November 2009. Almost two years have passed since the Massacre trial started but, as of press time, only 64 of the 196 alleged perpetrators have been arraigned. Of the 64, only two are members of the Ampatuan clan.

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