QC court dismisses legal challenges of Ampatuans
By Julie M. AurelioA Quezon City court has junked the bids of two Ampatuans challenging their indictment for the 2009 Maguindanao massacre, paving the way for their arraignment.
A Quezon City court has junked the bids of two Ampatuans challenging their indictment for the 2009 Maguindanao massacre, paving the way for their arraignment.
The primary suspects in the 2009 Maguindanao massacre have asked a Quezon City court to reject the bid of alleged gravedigger and backhoe operator Bong Andal to turn state’s evidence and be removed from the list of 195 accused in the case.
President Benigno Aquino III has ordered Liberal Party officials to review the accreditation of Ampatuan clan members who are running for office in Maguindanao under the party, according to Budget Secretary Florencio Abad.
Senator Joker Arroyo on Sunday said state prosecutors should focus on the “masterminds” behind the Maguindanao massacre rather than go after all the 200 suspects, most of whom were simply followers of the Ampatuan clan, and risk prolonging the “trial of the century” for over a hundred years.
The families of journalists killed in the Maguindanao massacre are afraid that the case against the Ampatuans could become “collateral damage” in the peace deal between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a private prosecutor in the case said Thursday.
Although his body has not been found, Reynaldo Momay, a photojournalist from General Santos City, has been formally recognized by the Department of Justice (DOJ) as the 58th victim of the “Maguindanao Massacre” in 2009.
The Ampatuans had used backhoes to cover up a number of killings for several years, just like what they did during the 2009 Maguindanao Massacre, a prosecution witness told a Quezon City regional trial court (RTC) Thursday.
The families of the victims of the 2009 Maguindanao massacre on Friday hailed the Supreme Court’s decision affirming a lower court’s order to include former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan among the accused in the carnage.
A government witness on Thursday pointed to the wrong accused in the Maguindanao massacre trial when he was asked to identify the former Maguindanao provincial police chief.
The family of a photojournalist believed to be the 58th victim in the 2009 Maguidanao massacre has called on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to file an additional murder charge against all the accused in the case.
Lawyers of Ampatuan family members accused of masterminding the Maguindanao massacre on Wednesday blocked the presentation of evidence reported taken from a cell phone found hidden in one of the victim’s underwear.
A lawyer of the Ampatuans in the Maguindanao massacre case wants to defer the presentation of two prosecution witnesses, saying that they were not on the court-approved list of evidence and witnesses for the trial.
