Special prosecutors eyed for Maguindanao

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines – The police and military agreed on Wednesday to assign here special prosecutors from outside of Mindanao to handle high-profile criminal cases.

The agreement was reached during a security summit among law enforcement agencies and the military at the Army’s Camp Siongco in Datu Odin Sinsuat in Maguindanao.

Maj. Gen. Edmundo Pangilinan, chief of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said he would do his best to have non-resident prosecutors in the region to try cases involving high-risk suspects.

Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao police director Chief Superintendent Ronald Estilles said he was amenable to the idea.

Pangilinan told The STAR the special prosecutors could stay at Camp Siongco and would be escorted by soldiers and policemen when they attend case hearings in any of the courts in Cotabato City and Maguindanao.

Talks on the assignment of prosecutors have been going around Cotabato City and in surrounding Maguindanao towns for weeks now, after suspected contract killer and drug trafficker Ruben Montes managed to post bail.

Montes’ release irked Lt. Col. Ranulfo Sevilla, chief of the Army’s 5th Special Forces Battalion, whose men arrested the suspect.