MANILA, Philippines - Justice Secretary Leila de Lima yesterday ordered an investigation of a brother of Maguindanao Gov. Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu who was tagged in the ambush of Maguindanao provincial prosecutor Akilali Balt in Cotabato City last week.
In a department order, she directed a team composed of Assistant State Prosecutor Vimar Barcellano and prosecution lawyers Gerard Gaerlan and Mark Roland Estepa to conduct a preliminary investigation into the allegation of Balt’s daughter Aminah that Mayor Ibrahim Mangudadatu of Buluan town was behind the attack.
The panel was also ordered to take over the prosecution of Acmad Makakena Maliga, the arrested alleged gunman who tagged Mayor Mangudadatu as the supposed mastermind.
“I immediately directed (Prosecutor General Claro Arellano) to monitor this case. I also directed the prosecutors to file an urgent motion with the court there for the transfer of custody of Maliga to Manila,” De Lima said in a press conference in her office in Manila.
She gave assurance that the alliance forged by the administration with the Mangudadatus in relation to the Maguindanao massacre case would not affect the prosecution of those behind Balt’s ambush.
She said she has not talked to Gov. Mangudadatu about the issue.
“If there is a warrant of arrest and he (Mayor Mangudadatu) resists, that’s when I will talk to the governor. There are no sacred cows in this case – even if it involves allies or not,” she said.
De Lima said she learned that Balt and Mayor Mangudadatu had a recent fight. She refused to elaborate.
Her order was prompted by a letter of Balt’s daughter and Maliga’s testimony implicating Mayor Mangudadatu in the ambush.
Balt’s daughter asked De Lima to investigate this information, and transfer Maliga’s custody to the National Bureau of Investigation in Manila and also the preliminary investigation into the case to the DOJ central office.
“Since the culprits involved the most powerful ruling family in Maguindanao, the witnesses’ lives and that of my father are now in grave danger, and it is virtually impossible to have a fair and safe investigation and trial in Cotabato City. In hindsight, similar cases end up in a mockery of justice,” she said.
In a five-page affidavit subscribed last March 18, Maliga was asked by assistant city prosecutor Tocod Ronda in Filipino: “I will repeat, who ordered your group to shoot and kill Fiscal Balt of Maguindanao?”
Maliga replied: “Si Mayor Ibrahim Diong Mangudadatu.”
Balt was on his way home aboard a service vehicle driven by Dandan Balt Datu Dakula when two motorcycle-riding men opened fire at them last March 15.
Balt sustained bullet wounds in the lower right ear, lower right neck and right forearm. He was still in coma as of yesterday afternoon.
Authorities traced the motorcycle used by the gunmen and found it registered under the name of a certain Asma Samaon.
In August last year, Lanao del Norte provincial prosecutor Macadatar Marsangca was also attacked by two men while jogging in Tubod, Iligan City.