Prosecutors rest case in massacre

MANILA, Philippines – Days before the sixth anniversary of the Nov. 23, 2009 Maguindanao massacre, the prosecution panel handling the multiple murder case has rested its case against 41 policemen accused in the killing of 58 people, including 32 members of media.

With this, the prosecution has now formally ended presentation of evidence against a total of 95 suspects facing 58 counts of murder, court records showed.

Once the judge resolves the formal offer, the defense panel will present its own witnesses, or file a demurrer that would question the strength of the prosecution evidence.

In a 92-page formal offer of evidence filed earlier this month, the panel lead by City Prosecutor Archimedes Manabat ended the presentation of evidence-in-chief against members of the 1507th and 1508th of the Provincial Mobile Group of the Philippine National Police.

Despite this, the case against them may not immediately proceed as the prosecutors asked Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221 Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes to defer resolving the formal offer of evidence.

The prosecutors said it has a pending petition for certiorari before the Court of Appeals questioning the court’s earlier ruling that granted the bail petition of the 41 accused policemen.

The suspects remain in detention despite the granting of their motion for temporary freedom as they have yet to file the P11.6-million bail set by the court.

“The people invokes the rule on judicial courtesy as a legal ground to sustain the instant motion,” said the prosecutors in their motion to suspend the ruling on the formal offer.

“If the prosecution secures an affirmative relief from the appellate court, the same will be rendered nugatory as the formal offer of evidence will be resolved ahead of the said petitions for certiorari,” they added.

In its formal offer, the prosecutors included hundreds of items of evidence and the testimonies of 151 witness who testified during the course the almost six-year trial.

Moving forward

Earlier, the panel also ended its presentation of evidence against 54 other accused, including deceased former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr. and his son Anwar Jr. and son-in-law Akmad Ampatuan.

Andal Sr., who died of liver cancer on July 17, was still included in the formal offer as the court has yet to official drop the criminal charges against him.

A court employee said that while the judge has been informed of his death, an official death certificate has yet to be submitted by his lawyers.

Aside from the three Ampatuans, the prosecutors also rested their case against 12 other suspects whose bail petitions have already been denied.

Also included in the said formal offers are 39 suspects who did not file bail petitions, including backhoe operator Bong Andal.

A total of 113 of the initial 197 suspects have been arrested for the massacre.

Of those arrested, three have died while charges against another three have been dismissed.

Meanwhile, seven bail petitions remain pending, including that of primary suspect Andal Ampatuan Jr.

The court gave his lawyer Salvador Panelo until December to present his witnesses in the bail petition.

In the past year, the judge also denied the bail petitions of Zaldy and Anwar Sr., while it granted the bail plea of Sajid Islam. All three are sons of the deceased clan patriarch.

Sajid Islam has posted the P11.6-million bail set by the court. He is running for mayor of Shariff Aguak in Maguindanao next year.

The prosecution panel, through the Office of the Solicitor General, is also questioning before the Court of Appeals the ruling that granted his bail plea.

Zaldy’s lawyers, meanwhile, said they plan to elevate the issue of the denial of his bail to the appellate court.

Fifty-eight people, including 32 media practitioners, died in the Nov. 23, 2009 bloodbath.

The victims – led by the wife of then Buluan vice Mayor and now Maguindanao Governor Esmael Mangudadatu – were en route to Shariff Aguak to file Mangudadatu’s certificate of candidacy when they were waylaid and brutally murdered by more than a hundred men.

The attack was allegedly committed by the ruling Ampatuan clan, who was being challenged by Mangudadatu in the gubernatorial race. – With Artemio Dumlao