Ampatuan's contempt charge vs. lawyer junked

MANILA, Philippines - A judge junked the indirect contempt charge filed by former Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan, Jr. against a private prosecutor in the Maguindanao massacre trial.

Quezon City Regional Trial Court (QC-RTC) Branch 218 Judge Luis Zenon Maceren, in a decision released to the media on Monday, dismissed for lack of merit the contempt charge against lawyer Nena Santos.

"Two Courts, (QC-RTC Branch 221 and 224), have also consistently held that there is nothing contemptuous about the statements made by Attorney Nena Santos," Maceren said in the five-page decision dated Jan. 3.

The judge was referring to the separate rulings of Branch 221 Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes and Branch 224 Judge Tita Marilyn Villordon on the other contempt charges filed by Ampatuan against Santos and other prosecutors in the Maguindanao massacre case.

Ampatuan is a primary suspect in the Nov. 23, 2009 Maguindanao massacre, which claimed the lives of 58 people, including 32 media practitioners.

In an omnibus order dated May 28, 2010, Solis-Reyes, the judge handling the multiple murder case, cleared members of the prosecution panel from contempt raps and ruled that "only when the statements made tend to influence the court or obstruct the administration of justice that thesame may be made contemptuous."

However, she warned prosecutors and their witnessesto refrain from making unnecessary statements before the media that will delve into the merits of the case.

Meanwhile, Villordon, in her April 19, 2011 order, said it found no violation of the 2010 omnibus order as it only restrained thepanel from making statements that delved into the merits of the case.

In his ruling, Maceren said that the acts ruled upon by the other courts are the same ones that are the subject of the case filed before his court.

He ruled, "Courts cannot be as vulnerable to opinion and biases of people inside and outside the court, as the Petitioner (Ampatuan) would paint it. Neither are judges who are the personal representation of the Court are as susceptible to public opinion and media articles as implied by Petitioner."

"The Court is much tougher than the Petitioner would like to believe. The Court's impartiality shall not easily crumble just because people speak of their opinion regarding a case pending before it," the judge added.

Ampatuan cited two articles in his complaint against Santos: a Philippine Star report dated July 3, 2010 and a Philippine Daily Inquirer report dated Feb. 10, 2011.

The Star report, which is also the main subject of the dismissed complaint before QC-RTC Brach 224, was about the ambush that injured a lawyer of a witness in the massacre trial.

Ampatuan said the statement of Santos, who "surmised" that the ambush was meant to warn the families of the victims and witnesses, painted him as responsible for the ambush.

Meanwhile, Santos was quoted in the Inquirer reportvreacting to the cross-examination conducted on a witness by defense lawyer Paris Real.

The former Datu Unsay mayor claimed that Santos violated the sub judice rule which "prohibits any person from making statements or expressing opinion on matters that go into the viability and value of evidence in a pending case."

He asked the court to sentence Santos to a one-month imprisonment and pay a fine of P5000.

But in his ruling, Maceren said the statement of Santos in The STAR report was a mere opinion of a lawyer and that it cannot have any impact on the Maguindanao massacre trial.

In the other report, the judge said that while the lawyer's statements appear to have touched on matters regarding the case, "a perusal of the same article would reveal that the same are mere opinion of such counsel which are not meant to sway the Court to decide the case in their favor."

"There is a reason why lady justice has her eyes blindfolded- that is to keep he uninfluenced by personal and societal biases. She is to evaluate a case presented before her, with the evidence presented and objective criteria and not on extraneous circumstances," added Maceren.