Backhoe driver to stay at Crame

MANILA, Philippines - The judge handling the 2009 Maguindanao massacre trial has allowed the temporary detention of the alleged backhoe operator who dug the graves of the massacre victims at the Philippine National Police (PNP) Custodial Center at Camp Crame.

“Accused Bong Andal is allowed to be temporarily detained at the PNP Custodial Center, Camp Crame, Quezon City, instead of Quezon City Jail Annex (in) Camp Bagong Diwa, Bicutan, Taguig,” Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221 said in her order.

The decision came after prosecution lawyer Aristotle Reyes claimed that Andal’s life will be in danger if he “will be confined at the detention facility where he will co-mingle with the other accused against whom he wishes to testify.”

Solis-Reyes also gave the prosecution 15 days to file the appropriate motion to turn Andal into a state witness.

“The fact that there are four alleged eyewitnesses to these cases will not suffice to preclude the prosecution from filing a motion for conversion as state witness in view of the magnitude of these cases,” the decision reads, denying the objection of defense lawyer Sigfrid Fortun that the prosecution has already presented four eyewitnesses as observed by the Court.

Fortun also noted that the conversion of an accused to be a state witness must comply with the rules and that the prosecution should not treat Andal differently from the other suspects.

Andal was arrested on Nov. 24 in Midsayap, North Cotabato in an entrapment operation conducted jointly by the local police and the Army’s 40th Infantry Battalion.

Last week, Solis-Reyes ordered Andal’s transfer from Cotabato to the QC Jail Annex at Camp Bagong Diwa. However, when he arrived in Manila, Andal was immediately brought to Camp Crame in Quezon City. He was the 100th massacre suspect arrested by authorities.

A total of 197 people were tagged in the Nov. 23, 2009 massacre of 58 people, including at least 32 media practitioners. Of the arrested suspects, one has since been freed as his case was dismissed, while another died after jumping from the roof of his detention facility.