Ampatuan witness' namesake hits harassment by cops

MANILA, Philippines – A namesake of a state witness in the Maguindanao massacre case has asked a Quezon City regional trial court to stop law enforcers from harassing him.

Mohammad Supiter Sangki told Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes that the witness is his uncle, Mohamad Simpal Sangki, but his photo is the one attached to the charge sheet.

The younger Sangki’s lawyer, Richard Petisme, said the witness is already under the government’s witness protection program but law enforcers still tried to arrest his client.

“This situation must be corrected as early as possible in order to correct the situation and to avoid further complication on the matter specifically the arrest and detention of an innocent person,” he said.

Petisme said last Nov. 2, operatives of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group based in Cotabato City raided his client’s house. His client was not home at the time.

The purported reason why lawmen were after him was because his picture was attached to the charge sheet the lawmen were using in the manhunt.

Petisme said his client is worried that other law enforcers would still go after him even if there is only one “Mohamad S. Sangki” involved in the case and he is already in custody.

Petisme asked Solis-Reyes to direct the Department of Justice (DOJ) to change the picture attached to the charge sheet to that of the correct picture of Mohamad Simpal Sangki.

In response, DOJ prosecutors said the photos of the accused in the case are not with them but with the Philippine National Police and the National Bureau of Investigation. 

The elder Sangki, a councilor of Datu Abdullah Sangki town of Maguindanao, testified that he learned of a plan to stop a convoy of relatives of then vice mayor Esmael Mangudadatu from a certain Talembo Masukat, a councilor of Mamasapano town.

Mangudadatu’s wife and sisters were among the people killed in the massacre on the outskirts of Ampatuan town in Maguindanao province on Nov. 23, 2009.