AMPATUAN TRIAL UPDATE: Judge faces fifth recusation motion
THE JUDGE who was supposed to try the accused in the Ampatuan multiple murder case has once again been asked by the defense lawyers to recuse herself—for the sixth time.
The motion for Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221 Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes to inhibit herself from trying the case was the latest in what journalists’ groups and the Department of Justice prosecutors say are tactics meant to delay the court process.
Before the latest recusation, the defense lawyers of Andal Sr. and Andal ”Unsay” Jr. Ampatuan have already filed four recusations and a supplemental recusation.
Agra backtracks
The “Fifth Recusation” came almost a month after a May 5 resolution in which acting Justice Secretary Alberto Agra reversed his April 16 resolution to drop Zaldy and Akmad Ampatuan from the list of accused in the multiple murder case.
Journalists’ and other groups had launched a series of protest actions denouncing Agra’s April 16 resolution in which Agra argued that there was little evidence to show that the two Ampatuans participated in either the planning or execution of the massacre. He was therefore granting the two Ampatuan’s petition to exclude them from the charges.
Agra, however, denied in the same April 16 resolution similar petitions from Andal Ampatuan Sr. and Anwar Ampatuan
The relatives and colleagues of the massacre victims as well as press freedom organizations had called on the acting secretary to withdraw his resolution. They said the decision would contribute to the culture of impunity in the Philippines.
Some also feared that the April 16 resolution of Agra was intend to release the two Ampatuans in preparation for massive cheating in Maguindanao in the May 10 elections, as allegedly happened in Maguindanao in 2004.
The April 16 Agra resolution order came less than a month prior to the elections, in which some of the accused Ampatuans ran for office in Maguindanao and other provinces, and won.
Agra, who appeared on national TV weeping, denied the accusations. He maintained that he was impartial and had based his decision on the evidence presented to him.
Prosecutors protest
But even his own prosecutors opposed his order. Chief State Prosecutor Claro Arellano, the prosecution panel, and other members of the National Prosecution Service condemned Agra’s actions, in what could be the first time that state prosecutors had publicly disagreed with and criticized a justice secretary.
In their statement read by Arellano on April 19, the prosecutors said “As professional career prosecutors, it pains us to publicly disagree with the resolution of the Secretary of Justice. We recognize the appellate jurisdiction of the Secretary and his authority over us. We may have differences of opinions, but at the end of the day and after all is said and done, his opinion prevails over ours. But, we, being in the frontline, still believe with due respect that there is probable cause to indict the two accused.”
They added that “The Department of Justice is supposed to be the sword and shield of law and order. We are deeply concerned that the resolution will all the more convince a long skeptical public that our criminal justice system is impotent when the accused are politically influential.”
“We pray and hope that despite difficulties and setbacks, justice will ultimately be served to the victims of this tragedy. It is along this line that we earnestly and respectfully request Acting Secretary Agra to revisit his resolution. Otherwise, we dishonor the primary reason for which our institution exists and its very name: the Department of Justice.”
Charges against Ampatuans reinstated
Arguably because of his own prosecutors’ and the media’s resistance, Agra reversed himself and ordered last May 5 the inclusion of the two Ampatuans in the list of accused in the massacre case.
In its statement on the sixth month commemoration of the massacre, the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) said “Agra eventually reversed himself in the wake of protests by the media, civil society, and his own prosecutors, in a telling demonstration of the indispensable role of citizen militancy in the quest for justice. But his earlier decision makes it difficult to remove doubts over the capacity of the justice system to resolve the case to the satisfaction of the families of the victims, the press community and the Filipino people.”
“These doubts were inevitable, given the Arroyos’ expressed hostility toward critical journalists and her administration’s consistent failure to address with stronger measures the killing of journalists and media workers, as the number of victims spiked dramatically during her nine-year watch.”
But bail proceeding remain on hold
The bail proceedings  remained on hold  pending the resolution of the numerous motions filed by both the prosecution and the defense—the last hearing on the bail petition filed by Andal “Unsay” Ampatuan Jr., the primary suspect in the Nov. 23 killing of 58 persons including 32 journalists and media workers, was in February. But nine policemen and two civilian voluntary organization (CVO) members were arraigned and entered a plea of “not guilty” during an April 21 hearing.
Those arraigned included Police Inspector Michael Macaraeg, who had surrendered that day; Police Inspector Rex Ariel Diongon; police officers Saudlar Alo Ulah, Rainer Ebus, Hernanie Decipulo Jr., Saudi Pasutan, Pia Kamidon, Esprielito Lejarso and Herich Amaba; CVO members Takpan Dilon and Esmael Canapia.
The arraignment of four other police officers—Michael Madsig, Abiduin Abdulgani, Hamad Nana, and Manuel Guialal—was put off pending the resolution of their Motion to Quash filed through their counsel.
Meanwhile, the prosecution filed a motion to discharge Police Inspectors Diongon and Macaraeg, police officer Ebus, and Mohamad Sangki as accused. If discharged, the four shall serve as state witnesses.
Overall the trial was proceeding in fits and starts, tending to validate widespread doubts that the 57 men and women killed in Ampatuan town, Maguindanao on November 23, 2009 would ever get justice.
Dear Friends in the Media:
I wanted to share with you a very basic concern about freedom as it relates to the 11/23 in Maguindanao. The image that this dastardly crime had created about a whole lot of people bearing an Ampatuan as surname is as much a serious humanitarian concern as the concern for victims of the massacre. Indeed, the accused bear Ampatuan as surname such as Datu Unsay Ampatuan, Jr and Datu Andal Ampatuan, Sr. and there are a lot more. We may assume that there may be more than 20 persons named in the investigation with Ampatuan as surname. Of course, as the parlance of civilized justice says, “the accused are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court” otherwise, we might as well return to barbaric days when just pointing a finger at a person meant instant judgment that one is guilty.
What is worrisome is that there a lot of people who bear Ampatuan as surname, both living and dead — including, children, women, disabled, men, and elderly and they now bear the weight of pressure and prejudice that media have generated. Any Ampatuan now stands to face a stark reality that this sopposedly civilized society would look upon them.
Did it ever occur to those who have towed, hook, line and sinker the notion that these Ampatuans, all of them, are criminals that probably, only two or three Ampatuan may eventually stand to be actually guilty of the crime? The official documents now in the hands of authorities and the witnesses seemingly don not have enough evidence about the other Ampatuans and many other non-Ampatuans who are named as accused.
There also is a tendency for authorities to fabricate evidences, testimonies and facts just to toe the line of public perception generated by media.
What i wish to point out is that this crime have both dead and living victims. Those that are dead comprising of some women bearing Mangudadatu family names and couple of low key members of the media — have now rested in peace. But the children, women, elderly, disabled and men who have nothing to do with the crime now stand living but whose surnames are up to this date being massacred in the consciousness of this “civilized” and “democratic” society.
I can not escape to recall how Adolf Hitler have hated so much the Jews that he wanted them all killed. His mindset is that every Jew, even the unborn one are guilty of some unknown crime and they all have to be put to death.
It’s a psychology that is perverted to generate public opinion that is so irresponsible as to have painted a dark picture of a group of people who share the same surname with a handful accused of a crime, yet they themselves stand baffled by the gravity of this evil act.
There are some facts that appear in media but are not given sustained coverage that those who are accused, specially the most prominent ones, have been abusing their fellow Ampatuan such as also killing them and grabbing their lands. Well, it would not be surprising, if indeed, those accused of the 11/23 Masalay massacre are guilty of the crime their are accused of, that their immediate kith and kin would be their first victims which we did not know of as those victimized are not as prominent as media people or not prominent politician such as bearing a Mangudadatu as surname.
I pray and hope that while we seek justice for the victims of the 11/23 Masalay Massacre (media preferred to call it Ampatuan or Maguindanao massacre, we must care enough to correct the injustice done on innocent Ampatuans who themselves have been victim of the barbaric life that people of Maguindanao bear and are now pinned down with a public image of a crime that they never did or would not imagine they would do.
I wish to cry and also shout “Justice and Freedom for All!”.