Zaldy A. asks SC to drop him as massacre suspect

MANILA, Philippines - Zaldy Ampatuan is asking the Supreme Court (SC) to drop him from the charge sheet in the Maguindanao massacre multiple murder case, citing allegedly conflicting affidavits of two witnesses who both claimed seeing him at the meeting to plot the killings – but at different times.

The former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao governor filed a petition for review and asked for a reversal of the Court of Appeal’s previous decisions, which included him among the 196 accused.

A copy of the pleading filed on Friday was forwarded to the Regional Trial Court Branch 221, which is hearing the murder case.

His lawyers, Philip Sigfrid Fortun and Albert Lee Angeles, asked the SC to reinstate former justice secretary Alberto Agra’s first resolution dated April 2010 that excluded him from the list of accused.

He referred to the affidavits of Kenny Dalandag in 2009 and Abdul Talusan in 2010, who both claimed seeing Zaldy at a meeting on Nov. 22, 2009 at Andal Ampatuan Sr.’s house to plot the massacre.

He noted that while Dalandag said the meeting started at 7 p.m. with Zaldy present, Talusan stated that Zaldy only arrived at around 11 p.m.

His pleading also stated that the time the meeting supposedly ended were different – Dalandag said it was at 2 a.m. of Nov. 23, 2009, but Talusan said it was at 1 a.m.

“The conflicting and contradicting evidence of the public respondents’ affirms the weakness of the case,” the petition said.