Mangudadatu saddened by court's bail grant to massacre suspect

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu on Tuesday said prosecution lawyers will ask Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes to rescind her grant of bail to Nov. 23, 2009 “Maguindanao Massacre” suspect Sajid Ampatuan.

Solis-Reyes is presiding judge of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221, where the massacre case, which left 58 people dead, is being litigated. More than 30 of the massacre victims were journalists.

Mangudadatu, who lost a wife, Genalyn, and several relatives in the incident, said he was saddened by the decision of Solis-Reyes allowing the suspect, who is youngest son of detained former Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan, Sr., to a bail of P11.6 million.

The bail the court had set is the total sum of a P200,000 post for each of the 58 murder count Sajid and other suspects in the massacre are being prosecuted for.

“While I’m not happy with this development, I will remain respectful of the court. I will not say bad words against that court and the judiciary, in general. We will just initiate legal means of asking for a reconsideration of that court ruling,” Mangudadatu said.

Solis-Reyes, in a 12-page omnibus order last week, granted the bail petition of Sajid on the ground that the prosecution panel failed to establish strong evidence that would warrant his continued detention.

Citing the testimonies of witnesses, the judge noted that the suspect was merely present in the meetings among clan members, where the massacre plot was allegedly hatched, but did not utter any word while the plan was supposedly being discussed.

But in the same order, the judge denied the bail petition of Anwar Ampatuan Sr. and Akmad “Tato” Ampatuan, son and son-in-law, respectively, of the detained Ampatuan clan patriarch.

Mangudadatu said he had asked the Department of Justice to hasten the presentation of new witnesses to the massacre case, among them former Mayor Akmad Ampatuan of Salibo town in the second district of Maguindanao.

The former mayor was wounded in an ambush last December 10, just days after he had signed affidavits attesting to the involvement of the now detained Ampatuans in the atrocity, the country’s worst election-related violence ever.

“We have new witnesses whose knowledge on the involvement of the detained Ampatuans and many others, who have not been charged criminally yet, is so weighty and overwhelmingly valuable," Mangudadatu said.

The 58 people that perished in the massacre were on their way to the provincial capitol in Sharif Aguak, hometown of the Ampatuans, to file the certificate of candidacy for provincial governor of Mangudadatu, then vice-mayor of Buluan, in the May 13, 2010 local polls.

The culprits flagged down the convoy carrying the victims, diverted at gunpoint to a hill along the highway, where they were killed one after another with assault rifles and machine guns.  

The Ampatuans, known for their iron-fisted attitude in dealing with political rivals, were supposed to pit a member, Andal, Jr., as their favored candidate then for the highest elective post in the province.