5 fiscals join Maguindanao massacre panel

MANILA, Philippines - Five new members have joined a prosecution panel of the Department of Justice (DOJ) handling the Maguindanao massacre case, which has been plagued with controversies stemming from a rift between public prosecutors and a private lawyer who is purportedly close to Secretary Leila de Lima.

Quezon City Assistant City Prosecutor (ACP) Ramoncito Ocampo Jr. has accepted the offer to join the panel. City Prosecutor Donald Lee recruited him upon De Lima’s orders, The STAR learned yesterday. Ocampo is a former homicide police investigator in Makati and has just joined the city prosecution service.

Ocampo will take the place of ACP Liezel Morales, who resigned from the panel last Tuesday in apparent show of support for the former members of DOJ team earlier replaced by De Lima due to their conflict with lawyer Nena Santos, who represents the Mangudadatus and other victims in the Nov. 23, 2009 carnage.

An insider said the position was also offered to ACP Ronald Torrijos, who declined to join the panel.

Apart from Ocampo, Irene Resurreccion, a first-year prosecutor and Lee’s chief of staff, also accepted the offer to join the panel.

As of yesterday afternoon, three more fiscals from Quezon City were recruited for the team: Prosecutors Hector Buenaluz, Marsabelo Soriano and Nilo Peñaflor.

The five prosecutors’ names were listed in Lee’s office order, which will be submitted to De Lima for approval. A source said the DOJ is “scraping the barrel because veteran Quezon City prosecutors would not want to work for and under… Santos.”

Under the rules, private lawyers should submit to the supervision of public prosecutors in a case.

“This will not bode well for the case, when one considers the long trial experience of (defense lawyer Sigfried) Fortun and battery of defense,” the insider added.

The STAR earlier reported that De Lima called Lee last Thursday and instructed him to look for “experienced” Quezon City prosecutors to join the panel to remedy what was described as “inexperience” of the new prosecutors recently assigned to the case.

Lee then gave the offer to three city prosecutors – Perfecto Lawrence Chua-Cheng, Manuel Felipe and Ferdinand Baylon – but all three declined last Friday.

However, Baylon said he rejected the offer because he was worried the demanding schedule of the massacre trial would conflict with his schedule on another equally high-profile case — the murder of former Abra congressman Luis Bersamin in 2006.

“I have no qualms in joining the panel in case ordered by the DOJ since my duty as a public prosecutor mandates me to follow a direct order from my superiors in the interest of justice and public service,” he said in a text message.

Santos admitted in a text message to The STAR that she requested for more prosecutors to join the panel “due to the number of witnesses and accused once the others will be arraigned so that the trial will not be protracted and the witnesses’ presentation will not be fragmented.”

She said they are not seeking additional members to remedy the alleged inexperience of the new panel members, saying they are “more experienced than the old ones.”

Intolerable working conditions

In her letter to the DOJ chief, Morales cited “intolerable working atmosphere” as her reason for leaving the panel. She said she sympathizes with the former panel members – Assistant Chief State Prosecutor Richard Anthony Fadullon, Senior State Prosecutor Rosanne Balauag and State Prosecutors Juan Pedro Navera, Irwin Mara, Karla Cabel and Amada Felipe – who were accused by De Lima of lack of zeal and enthusiasm in justifying their removal from the team.

De Lima said it was a “painful decision” for her to remove the prosecutors, purportedly because of a request by Santos, a former classmate in law school.

“Much as I want to stay, it is disheartening and repulsive to hear negative comments and remarks against some members of the original panel. My association with the original panel clearly manifests that private prosecutor’s level of trust in me has dropped, hence, susceptibility to doubting my actions can grow,” Morales said.

She added that “blaming public prosecutors based on unfounded reasons by private prosecutors even during the proceedings, instead of working with them, is what created the hostile and inane work environment to the point that some members of the original panel have to leave or had to be replaced.”

Earlier, Assistant State Prosecutor Alex Suarez, another member of the panel, also resigned and cited his conflict with Santos.

Lawyer Harry Roque Jr., the other private prosecutor in the case, sided with former panel members and attested to how Santos seemed to dictate the pace of the prosecution.

Roque is seeking an audience with De Lima to discuss what he said were “very troubling” developments in the management of the trial. He refused to disclose what issues he would bring up during the meeting.