Lawyers hit non-inclusion of massacre issue in P-Noy's SONA

MANILA, Philippines - Private prosecutors in the Maguindanao massacre case have expressed disappointment over President Aquino’s failure to include the case in his second State of the Nation Address last Monday.

Lawyers Harry Roque and Nena Santos expressed dismay that the speech did not mention the multiple murder charges filed against members of the Ampatuan clan and several others that are pending in court.

Roque said the massacre case does not seem to be a priority of the Aquino government.

“(We are) sad (because) we would have wanted to know how he (Aquino) intends to give justice to the victims,” Roque said.

Roque represents families of some of the slain victims in the Nov. 23, 2009 massacre in Ampatuan town, Maguindanao, while Santos is the counsel of the family of incumbent Maguinda­nao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu.

Former governor Zaldy Ampatuan of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Min­danao, his father former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr., and his brother former mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. of Datu Unsay, Maguindanao; and 194 others were charged for the killing of 57 people in Maguindanao on Nov. 23, 2009.

Among the dead were the wife of Ma­ngudadatu who was then the vice mayor of Buluan, Maguindanao and two of his sisters, two female lawyers and 30 media men who covered the supposed filing of certi­ficate of candidacy of the vice mayor who would run for governor of Maguindanao and challenge a scion of the Ampatuan clan. Mangudadatu has since won the election.

The Mangudadatus have accused the Ampa­tuans of masterminding the incident, specifically pointing to Andal Jr. as the leader of 100 armed men who abducted Mangudadatu’s supporters.

The Ampatuans denied the allegations against them.

Santos said she expected Aquino to include the pending multiple murder case in his report to the nation.

But because it was not part of the SONA, Santos said: “We are wary now because of the recent developments where some of his (Aquino’s) alter egos deal with Zaldy Ampatuan.”

“It sends a wrong signal that justice is subject to a compromise,” Santos stressed. 

Meanwhile, Santos has asked the Quezon City Regional Trial Court to order Zaldy Ampatuan, ABS-CBN reporter Anthony Taberna, and two others to explain why the detained was allowed to conduct the “unauthorized interview” aired two weeks ago.

She asked the court to issue a show cause order against Taberna and his news crew, Ampa­tuan, and the officials of ABS-CBN and its News and Current Affairs office.

The motion for a show cause order was filed late Friday afternoon at the sala of Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of Quezon City RTC Branch 221, just hours after Ampatuan was taken out of the Philippine Heart Center following a coronary angiogram.